Temporarily replacing NAMA on the corruption scale, Andrew McCormick, the permanent secretary of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment defended the refusal to make public a report in to the failed and completely miss-managed NI Events Company.
A report commissioned by his department, costing £1.24 million ( 5 times the initial estimate) and taking 5 years to complete, and all to inform the tax payer of what they already knew.
McCormick stated that there were “sound reasons” for doing so. These reasons amounted to the protection of information on suspected criminal activity that may be relevant to the criminal investigation,
"Protecting that parallel process was a responsibility we had and it would have been wrong to contemplate publication."
And those interviewed were assured that the report would not be published as an incentive for greater candour in their discussions. An assurance that may interest those behind the Boston Chronicles.
All those years of finely honed detectives and their interrogation techniques within Castlereagh going to waste! Surely, as there was a parallel criminal investigation going on, if these two ‘ace in the hole’ cards had been employed against civil servants untrained in anti-interrogation techniques we could have saved ourselves at least £1.2 million.
And no doubt ‘extracted’ a greater candour than initially envisaged and without the need to promise anonymity!!!!
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