You can read the full story of how a battling West Belfast solicitor blew the whistle on the health service golden circle — which benefited crooked lawyer George Brangam to the tune of £27m — on belfastmedia.com this morning.
While the Public Accounts Committee focused on the £200,000 or so he actually stole from the Health Service, the reality is that the real thieving was done in the construction of a procurement system which gave Brangam a monopoly. The Public Accounts Committee, unfortunately, didn't fully understand that was the real problem. However, they made some scathing remarks about the set-up and will now hopefully haul back in some of the people behind this scandal for a grilling.
Michael Flanigan blew the whistle on this "debacle" (the Committee's word) in 1998 but was ignored. How many other Brangams are living it high on the hog and how many other Michael Flanigans are being ignored by the powers-that-be?
The excrement will really hit the fan when foreign investors learn of this banana-republic-style corruption, making it all the more difficult to rebuild our shattered economy. Unless, of course, they can show heads have rolled...which hasn't happened yet.
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Where this "banana-republic-style corruption" is the norm, foreign investors can just as easily invest in Nigeria, Myamar (Burma), or some other third-world country where questions are never asked.
In the end foreign investors know, if people steal from their own, they will surely steal from any foreign investor. That is guaranteed.
When trust is destroyed, credibility is destroyed, and we all pay a very heavy price for our cowardice in not speaking out.
If you read the newspapers this morning, you find out that London had resent the SAS butchers back into the North under cover of darkness.
Obviously, this is the other shoe to drop connected into the awarding of the knighthood of Ted Kennedy to give London and the SAS political cover.
And obviously, Robinson and McGuinness, both on their way to America knew of the SAS's return to the North for some time and said and did nothing.
This is the latest and last of the "peace dividends."
England has redeclared war on Ireland.
The peace process is now ancient history.
Nothing has changed.
We do not have to be concerned about foreign investors anymore.
Northern Ireland is once again a war zone.
It is time for Mr. Martin McGuinness and Mr. Gerry Adams to stand down.
You are either with the people, or you are with the SAS killers.
There is no way to window dress the SAS.
There is no getting round that is a return to a war footing. We have seen this happen before. The same old lies.
The forked-tongue policies are over and done with.
You cannot have it both ways.
We have beem sold a poisoned chalice.
The return of the SAS is the extreme height of stupidity, the absolute extreme height.
But what can you expect from London and our brave leaders in Stormont.
It is very clear now that the peace process was all public relations or propaganda.
London does not believe in "non-violence."
So much for foreign investment going forward.
Shoot-to-kill is returning to Northern Ireland.
The next time people get killed under mysterious circumstances, we will all know it was the SAS.
Collusion will be alive and well and prospering.
So much for the Good Friday Agreement.
History has now proved that the GFA was an out-and-out fraud.
When and where will be the next Ballymurphy Massacre?
Where and when will be the next Bombay Street?
Where and when will the next Gibraltar 3?
Where and when?
How do we ask foreign investors to invest in Northern Ireland?
Foreign investors cannot not be that stupid to overlook the return of the SAS. They conduct their own due diligence political reviews.
I guess Sir Orde is getting his revenge now that he did not get the top Met Police job in London.
Anonymous 1, What a load of nonsense. I have no great love for Robinson nor McGuiness but along with the rest of us they are trying to build some sort of future for BOTH communities. Part of that effort has to go towards protecting those communities from dissidents, Al-Quaeda etc. I appreciate that alleged events from the recent past cause some people to worry, but the sitaution has changed. The vast majority in both communities want to move forward together. They deserve to be protected from the very small dissident killer gangs who it seems cannot give up their blood lust and do not realise that we are in fact NO LONGER AT WAR but edging along the path toward a common future where everyone has an equal chance to realise their potential. Your final few comments are idiotic and facile (imho).
Having said all that, the greed and dishonesty highlighted in the original post can probably do more damage to our economy and future investment than the niggling threat of a few 'Irregulars'.
Anonymous 2, too depressing to even comment on...
"They deserve to be protected from the very small dissident killer gangs who it seems cannot give up their blood lust and do not realise that we are in fact NO LONGER AT WAR but edging along the path toward a common future where everyone has an equal chance to realise their potential."
Is it a question of blood lust or are these organisation striving to achieve the united Ireland or Éirnua of equals, something 'mainstream republicans' have failed to deliver? What makes these republicans with their ideals and methods any different from the provisional movement of the past?
Andy I too follow reports on the efforts they are trying to build some sort of future for BOTH communities but there are better ways of securing Pease. The DUP, PSNI, even when it was perceived that progress was happening, it was all protracted retoric. Tell me Andy why Sinn Fein’s Chief Wip was complaining about the way DUP ministers were addressing Sinn Fein MP minister Gerry Adam in Stormont. Even on the simple things of North and south bodies, Eames and Bradley, dup could not get it right without going back to their old ways of confrontation and fear over police protecting the British State. They did not give it their max effort.
The children are the ones suffering for our mistakes (Drugs, teaching hate, sectarian attacks). The white collar thieves are just another way of showing that these animals do not care about peace and unity in NI. IT is another victory for DUP hardliner, another Nail in the coffin of the GFA. Their politics is full of the one sided events and We are left with a half hearted effort because part of that effort is Dup conquering their fears. McGuinness has crossed the line even being a knowing partner to SAS incursion back into NI.
Ed Kennedy knighthood shows where his loyalties lye; it reminds me of the betrayal of the O,Tools. America recent talks seem to have strengthened British resolve to take up Bush/Brown alliances in the war on terror. I wonder how much we had to pay for British help on current recessionary incentives- American duplicity on NI so called Dissident terrorists
America is dancing to the Tune of God save the Queen. Who’s got the score card when everyone in America is being wiretapped to the tune of British Foreign Policy?
"...the greed and dishonesty highlighted in the original post can probably do more damage to our economy and future investment than the niggling threat of a few 'Irregulars'..."
Andy,
With all due respect, coldly calculated decisions were made over a decade ago by the political parties and civil servants to maintain maximum corruption and keep people on their knees.
You know the golden rule of the civil service: get away with as much as possible while doing as little as possible.
The chickens have come home to roost.
The civil servants care damn all for either you or me or anyone else, save themselves.
If we had taken a different tact in the mid 90s, we would not have to be concerned with foreign investment.
We have a moral responsibility to tell the truth to people investing in NI. To do otherwise would be fraud.
Let's clean up our act. And maybe, it is only the foreign investors who can shake up the corrupt civil servants and politicians.
International business people do not buy into those cute NI accents anymore. That game is finished.
Merit is the only thing that counts now and into the future. The sooner we clean up, the better for everyone. And if we do not, the corruption will not save us.
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