TUV demands fair play for FAIR
23 September 2010
TUV Leader Jim Allister has spoken out about what he says has the appearance of ‘a witch-hunt’ against victims group, FAIR.
Following the withdrawal of all funding by Monaghan based POBAL and the SEUPB from three key FAIR programmes, which the TUV Leader described as ‘wholly disproportionate’, the withholding of core funding by the Community Relations Council and OFMDFM, even before they conduct their own audit, has been interpreted by Mr Allister as ‘an orchestrated push to strangle FAIR, in which I trust there are no political undertones because of the politically inconvenient stance which the group takes from time to time in defence of the rights of victims of the IRA.’
In a statement Mr Allister said, “No one can object to due process in the oversight of the spending of public money, but when total funding is withdrawn by the SEUPB on the basis of what they concede are merely ‘preliminary findings’ from an audit, and then CRC and OFMDFM jump on that bandwagon to stop core funding, even before they conduct their own audit, then it is hard to escape the conclusion that the powers that be have it in for FAIR.
“When I think of the millions lavished on ex-prisoners groups, which are blatantly pro IRA, I do have to wonder if an even-handed approach is being applied. Have such groups been audited with the same vigour as FAIR? How many of them have been starved of funds because of any adverse preliminary findings on their paper trail? I would now call for the publication of an audit of the auditing conducted on such groups, in contrast to that to which FAIR has been subjected. Let’s see how often other groups have been audited in comparison to FAIR, and what resulting steps have been taken.”
