The unanswered questions behind the MacKenzie handshake
24 January 2011
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister:-
“Confirmation that Conor Murphy has approved a £90,000 plus handshake for Laurence MacKenzie leaves many unanswered question, which in an accountable democracy would have been answered publicly weeks ago. Instead, an incompetent minister takes refuge in contradictory muddle.
“These are some of the straightforward questions, which I’ve previously posed, still awaiting satisfactory answer:
- Why was MacKenzie not dismissed, rather than allowed to resign, in that dismissal for gross misconduct would have excluded any pay out?
- If, as we are told, he resigned of his own volition, what sort of a remarkable contract had he which entitled him to a handsome severance package even when he himself choose to go? Does this mean that if the crisis had never occurred and he merely decided to leave, perhaps for an even higher paid job, he could have pocketed a severance package? If so, it is a truly remarkable and foolhardy contract, for which the paying public deserve an explanation. If DRD and NIW approved a contract which rewards the contract-breaker, then they have a lot of explaining to do.
- If, he did not go of his own volition, but by arrangement, then, why was this deceptive language being used (MacKenzie in resignation statement says “This is entirely my own decision..”)? If it was by mutual arrangement, and lengthy negotiations over a package and legal fees suggest that, why did NIW play this soft-landing game on MacKenzie’s terms, rather than opting for dismissal?
- How does the ‘inquiry’, such as it is, but supposedly looking at culpability issues, visit any sort of penalty on Mr MacKenzie, if it confirms major failings by him, if, long before it reports Murphy has signed off on an irreversible severance package, meaning any findings against Mr MacKenzie cannot be visited with any punitive consequences. So, no matter how damming the report might be of Laurence MacKenzie he will have long since laughed all the way to the bank. Yet another illustration of Murphy’s incompetence.
“These are some of the questions which cry out for answer, but with an Assembly where no Opposition is permitted, they will go unanswered.”
