Allister Exposes Wilson Bluster on Special Advisers - and Raises McArdle Appointment with Ombudsman
01 July 2011
Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“The comments of Finance Minister Sammy Wilson on Good Morning Ulster this morning regarding his review of the appointment of Special Advisers may have sounded good but the reality is that they will do nothing to address the situation.
“Any attempt to bring in the measures which would prevent people convicted of serious crimes from holding the position of Special Advisers can be vetoed by Sinn Fein/IRA at the Executive. Furthermore Mr Wilson has already conceded that it will be difficult to apply this requirement retrospectively. So Mary McArdle will remain in post.
“The strange thing is that in all the discussion and debate surrounding the appointment of McArdle the DFP Minister has never once mentioned the March 2011 Code of Practice on the Appointment of Special Advisers – issued by his Department.
“It seems to me that there are grounds to suspect that there have been numerous breaches of the Code of Practice and I have today written to the Northern Ireland Ombudsman in the following terms:
Dear Mr Frawley,
Re Appointment of Special Advisers to Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive
I write to draw your attention to an interview with the Finance Minister on Good Morning Ulster this morning. Mr Wilson was commenting on his review of the way Special Advisers were appointed and stated that up until now the appointment of Special Advisers has been “a fairly informal process”.
According to Mr Wilson the charges which he proposes will mean that Ministers will have to have a proper audit trail as to how people were shortlisted for the post and the criteria that was used for deciding on the appointment. Ministers will also have to justify the person they have chosen in light of their experience and qualifications.
I do not disagree with any of these measures. However, in March 2011 DFP issued a Code of Practice on the Appointment of Special Advisers which states that the Minister:
· Must pick from a field of candidates and must take account of any potential imbalance of religious belief or gender within the group;
· Must be mindful that the appointment could be challenged under fair employment law;
· Must appoint someone who fully meets the Minister’s needs in terms of talent and attitude;
· Should set out the requirements to be met by the person selected in a job description – “it is critical to ensure that objectivity is maintained and all the requirements are justifiable”;
· Should remember that a requirement that a candidate must be a member of the Minister’s political party may be unnecessary and unlawful and
· When drawing up a candidate pool the Minister should decide how wide the trawl for candidates should be “one way to achieve this would be for the Minister to invite a number of people from varying backgrounds and opinions to suggest the names of those they thought might meet the Minister’s stated criteria from which the Minister will make his or her final selection. How a pool is achieved will vary from Minister to Minister (public advertisement is another option, especially for an expert adviser) but the key is that the pool should be broadly based”.
Surely if this Code, drawn up by Mr Wilson’s own Department had been complied with the appointment of the DCAL Minister’s Special Adviser – and indeed all Special Advisers – should not have been as “informal” as the DFP Minister suggests it was.
You will note that the Code states that “the appointment of Special Advisers may be subject to investigation by the Northern Ireland Ombudsman”.
I request that you launch such an investigation as it seems to me that there are grounds to suspect that the DFP Code in force when Mary McArdle was appointed has not been complied with.
Thanking you in anticipation.
Yours sincerely,
“There is little point in Minister Wilson reviewing the processes surrounding the appointment of Special Advisers in the future if he doesn’t ensure that the existing safeguards were followed.”
