Today's editorial in the Andersonstown News:
Last week’s report by the Public Accounts Committee in Stormont hit
the bull’s eye in its excoriating review of the charmed relationship
between unionist lawyer George Brangam and the health service... and
just perhaps may help us expose the many other George Brangams out
there benefiting from no-contest government contracts.
The Brangam “debacle” (the Committee’s word, not ours) came to
light when it emerged that the crooked lawyer, not satisfied with a
contractual relationship with the Health Service which gave him a
monopoly on its legal work, started to thieve from his generous
benefactor.
Brangam’s pilfering left him several hundred thousand pounds better
off, but that was but a drop in the ocean when compared to the £27m
his firm earned in Health Service contracts over a ten-year period.
And indeed, it’s the firm view of the Public Accounts Committee that
his exclusive access to Health Service work facilitated his
fraudulent behaviour.
This procurement process, says the Committee, was “one of the worst
examples of bad procurement practice that this Committee has ever
seen.” It adds: “It is unbelievable that the select list for legal
services lasted for 12 years, preventing other firms from entering
this market.”
In short, a system devised to create a level playing field for all
and deliver value for money was corrupted by an “astounding”
procurement practice which effectively gifted George Brangam millions
of pounds.
This paper has argued for many years against discriminatory practice
in employment and in procurement. We have also contended that the old
school tie network of yesteryear remains entrenched in many areas of
society — not least in the Civil Service.
The Brangam affair further confirms us in that view.
The question now is, can politicians of goodwill flush out this
cancer of nepotism and bigotry which, in placing contracts on the
basis of religion and politics rather than merit, hinders economic
growth and rewards ineptitude and graft? In short, the
discriminatory practices on which much of our procurement system
still thrives are condemning us to live in an economic backwater.
The Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Paul Maskey, has made a
good start with the no-holds-barred indictment of the civil servants
involved in the Brangam “debacle”.
However, if no disciplinary action is taken against those who created
this sordid system, if no heads are to roll, then the rotten
practices of the past will continue.
Plaudits to courageous Falls Road solicitor Michael Flanigan for
fighting a lonely battle against this invidious discrimination.
Now the task facing everyone who believes in equality of opportunity
is to ensure that the next whistleblower isn’t met with an eleven-
year delay in finding his or her protests vindicated.
The corollary of that, of course, is that it also doesn’t take the
government 11 years to nail the bad guys.
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4 comments:
"...The question now is, can politicians of goodwill flush out this cancer of nepotism and bigotry which, in placing contracts on the basis of religion and politics rather than merit, hinders economic growth and rewards ineptitude and graft? In short, the discriminatory practices on which much of our procurement system still thrives are condemning us to live in an economic backwater..."
Martin,
We all need to be constructive and apply these identical same standards to the Irish language bodies, as distasteful as that will be for those in political and religious power.
If you look at how Comhairle and Foras were both established without the community and the manner in which both have been run, you will find the identical same nonsense in a different style format, but just as corrosive, corrupt, and cancerous.
The organisation that had true merit and street credibility, Gaeloiliuint, was quite deliberately destroyed.
Where else on the face of this planet did you find a group that helped found 5 dosen schools?
Where else did you find a group that built real bridges across community and regional lines and opened a community university which was all a threat to the established corrupt power system?
Kudos to Michael Flanigan for what he did in the health area!
Now let's do it elsewhere.
Rest assured, Ulster has paid a heavy price economically for its ignnorance and corruption with the Irish language and the destruction of international inward investment in the language, but people are too blind to see the truth in the economic backwater we seem to thrive in.
ah Mairtin didn't the big brained Shinners at stormont get an equality clause inserted in the last budget agreement which they thundered to the rooftops while those silly old "Doopers" where plundering the coffers for their own pet projects.It's a question of you get the equality while we get the lolly,but then the new SF mantra is "Belfast is our city too" but it seems it doesn't stretch beyond Divis street. We,ve had fair employment legislation here for decades but Republican/Nationalists are still over twice as likely to be unemployed as Unionists.Stuff your equality what we want are jobs, aye and maybe a few "Bangrams" of our own.
I am wondering why Sinn Fein does not ever respond to West of the Bann and her/his statements about the Irish language and Springvale?
It is starting to trouble me.
Aontáim le Anonymous thuas! Cén uair a mbeidh freagraí againn go poiblí nó ar suíomh cosúil leis an cheann seo? I mo bharúil tá ceisteanna móra le freagairt faoin Bhradán Feasa agus faoi obair nó easpa oibre atá ar bun ag eagraíochtaí maoinithe ag an Stát. Ní chloisim rud ar bith ar na mallaibh faoi scoileanna nua a bhunú agus tá gearghá le Meánscoil i nDoire agus in áiteanna eile! Cad é atá a dhéanamh ag polaiteoirí agus ag eagraíochtaí na Gaeilge? Mura bhfuil Meánscoil a phleanáil do Dhoire ba mhaith liom fáil amach cad chuige nach bhfuil agus cad é atá ar siúil ag polaiteoirí agus ag státseirbhísigh le ár gcuid airgid? Ní bheadh tost mar seo ó Ghaeloiliúint!!
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