TheStory.ie

UPDATED TO CLARIFY AND EXPLAIN FURTHER: In September I wrote about the close relationship between councillors, bank managers and people in the property business in Clifden, and the bizarre situation that emerged from that. It followed an article in The Sunday Times and blog post, both by Mark Tighe.

The basics; Declan Maher, manager of the local AIB branch and Kevin Barry, an accountant-turned-property-investor went into business together to form BMB Partnership/Marketing. Kevin Barry, acting for BMB, then applied to AIB Clifden for a $60m loan. Next, Maher, in his role as manager of the AIB branch, wrote to BMB – in which he was a partner – to “confirm to agree in principle” the transfer of funds.

Maher seemingly failed to declare any conflict of interest. Following the revelations in the Sunday Times AIB began investigating the matter.

The loan was sought to finance the purchase of lands in Florida which BMB had looked to acquire as part of a property investment syndicate. Other members of the syndicate included former Fianna Fáil councillor, Josie Conneely and mayor of Bundoran, Eammonn Barrett, a Fine Gael representative. Maher says the letter he wrote to BMB was only going to be used to show the person selling the lands that funding was available. He claims the loan would never have been completed through his office, that they would have used a different bank or AIB official.

More below the fold…

Continue reading “Clifden, planning permission and property”

At the bottom of page 9 in today’s Irish Times, in the “In Short” block, there is a brief update on the story around Bertie Ahern’s book and the tax exemption he has claimed on the earnings stemming from its publication.

FORMER TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has not yet decided if he will avail of tax-free status under the artists’ exemption scheme on earnings from his autobiography, his spokeswoman has indicated.

His decision will be taken at the end of the tax year and will be based on the profits, “if any”, of Bertie Ahern: The Autobiography.

Taking the decision on how much money will or will not be made is bizarre. The issue is not how much tax Ahern would save personally, but that he is attempting to keep the monies from the State at all. It is in no way different if the amounts not entering the exchequer coffers total €1 or €100,000. This attempt to appear to be considering whether he or the State needs the money more – as if it’s right that it is his choice to make – is idiotic.

The very fact he claims he is mulling it over is a kick in the teeth to other taxpayers. Whether he makes a profit or loss on the book is beside the point. It’s an issue of right or wrong; does Mr Ahern believe he should claim the tax exemption or does he not? The amounts involved are wholly irrelevant.

Update: Ken Foxe of The Sunday Tribune writes about the same subject, in a wider context, on his blog.

There is an editorial in today’s Irish Times headed ‘Political corruption’. It comes following the recent report from Group of States against Corruption (GRECO), a body within the Council of Europe. The report once again notes Ireland’s opaque political funding system. GRECO have been saying the same thing for nearly a decade, nothing of significance has been done.

GRECO report into Ireland January 25 2010 – Theme One [PDF] Theme Two (Transparency of Party Funding) [PDF].

The political funding system in Ireland is monitored by the Standards in Public Office Commission. I have previously written about the poor standard of SIPO’s work here [See – “25% isn’t a bad standard, is it SIPO?“] – it’s partially down to a lack of funding from Government for the office, they have less than ten staff, I believe. Oh the irony, the office responsible for ensuring political funding meets a certain standard of transparency is under-funded thus operating below standard…

Elaine Byrne also had a piece part-related to the GRECO report also in the Times this week, you can read that here.

Lastly, in the early days of this blog I wrote an article headed “Want to bypass our donations system? No problem“, it is also on the subject of political donations.

Myself and Gav are both up to our eyeballs at the moment. Here’s two quick items worth reading:

Firstly, Mark Tighe’s post on his blog following his story in the latest edition of the Sunday Times. He writes in more detail about the problems, obfuscations and delays he has incurred in attempting to obtain information on the night of the bank guarantee via FOI.

Our original request for these documents was made on October 3rd, 2008. Within four weeks Finance had replied with a big bundle of paperwork. Unfortunately the documents released were useless. They consisted of speeches made by Brian Lenihan after the guarantee was announced and a series of PQs answered in the Dail. They basically sent us a load of documents that were already in the public domain. A complete waste of paper.

I instantly sent in the €75 appeal cheque and asked the Department to stop taking the michael. We hadn’t asked for public documents created after the guarantee. We wanted the internal notes, memos, emails etc that would shed a little insight in to how the guarantee meetings of September 29/30 came about.

Hit the link above and read the rest.

Secondly, Edward McGarr of McGarr Solicitors seems to have noticed something  interesting relating to the DCC/Fyffes/Jim Flavin decision. The post is too short to pull a quote from, you’ll have to head over there to find out anything more.

This, while maybe not strictly within the TheStory remit, does show the value of journalism (and FOI and whistle-blowing and cross-referencing data).

Harper’s Scott Horton on The Guantánamo “Suicides”: A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle – published online on January 18.

Late on the evening of June 9 that year, three prisoners at Guantánamo died suddenly and violently… None of the men had been charged with a crime, though all three had been engaged in hunger strikes to protest the conditions of their imprisonment. They were being held in a cell block, known as Alpha Block, reserved for particularly troublesome or high-value prisoners.

As news of the deaths emerged the following day, the camp quickly went into lockdown… Reporters accepted the official account, and even lawyers for the prisoners appeared to believe that they had killed themselves.

Two years later, the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service, which has primary investigative jurisdiction within the naval base, issued a report supporting the account originally advanced by Harris, now a vice-admiral in command of the Sixth Fleet. The Pentagon declined to make the NCIS report public, and only when pressed with Freedom of Information Act demands did it disclose parts of the report, some 1,700 pages of documents so heavily redacted as to be nearly incomprehensible. The NCIS documents were carefully cross-referenced and deciphered by students and faculty at the law school of Seton Hall University in New Jersey, and their findings, released in November 2009, made clear why the Pentagon had been unwilling to make its conclusions public. The official story of the prisoners’ deaths was full of unacknowledged contradictions, and the centerpiece of the report—a reconstruction of the events—was simply unbelievable.

According to the NCIS documents, each prisoner had fashioned a noose from torn sheets and T-shirts and tied it to the top of his cell’s eight-foot-high steel-mesh wall. Each prisoner was able somehow to bind his own hands, and, in at least one case, his own feet, then stuff more rags deep down into his own throat. We are then asked to believe that each prisoner, even as he was choking on those rags, climbed up on his washbasin, slipped his head through the noose, tightened it, and leapt from the washbasin to hang until he asphyxiated. The NCIS report also proposes that the three prisoners, who were held in non-adjoining cells, carried out each of these actions almost simultaneously.

This is the official story, adopted by NCIS and Guantánamo command and reiterated by the Justice Department in formal pleadings, by the Defense Department in briefings and press releases, and by the State Department. Now four members of the Military Intelligence unit assigned to guard Camp Delta, including a decorated non-commissioned Army officer who was on duty as sergeant of the guard the night of June 9, have furnished an account dramatically at odds with the NCIS report—a report for which they were neither interviewed nor approached…

Harper’s is probably best-known for exposing the My Lai massacre through the reporting of their Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh. The full article on Gitmo will be printed in the March edition of Harper’s, which hits shelves on February 15 (really).

The above is only an intro…

Last week I flagged a story about councillors in Kildare attending some unusual conferences at the expense of the taxpayer. I asked if it was something reflected nationally and suggested local journalists and bloggers check it out in their respective areas.

The Donegal Democrat gives added impetus to this suggestion with their story this morning.

Exclusive: Councillor refunds double expense claim – Donegal Democrat

Reporter Michelle Nic Phaidian details how one Fine Gael councillor – a possible candidate in the forthcoming bye-election – claimed for attending two conferences over the same three day period, one of which was held over the weekend of October 16th-18th, the other on October 17th. He claimed mileage, subsistence and fee expenses for both but it appears he didn’t show up for the one-day event, telling the Democrat simply that he “mandated” to do so by the relevant authority.

Following the Democrat‘s investigation Councillor Terence Slowey has apologised and repaid more than €1,000 to the Border Regional Authority.

So, the authorities between them initially gave him more than €2,000 for three days conferencing? Nice work if you can get it.

If you haven’t got onto your local authority about conference expenses yet…

Yesterday I attended the Transparency Ireland (TI) meeting where a report was launched which calls for whistle-blower protection similar to that legislated for in the UK. John Devitt, head of Transparency Ireland, chaired the discussion. Completing the panel were Justine McCartney of The Sunday Times, Fintan O’Toole, assistant editor of The Irish Times, AIB whistle-blower Eugene McErlean and Tom Clonan, who brought to light sexual abuse and bullying in the Army.

Note: Nat O’Connor of TASC has a thorough post on Progressive Economy which covers related topics, it’s well worth reading.

I spoke briefly from the floor, putting it to the panel that there is a need to change wider Irish culture and attitudes to corruption before whistle-blowers get the respect and admiration they deserve. While I agree legislative protection for people who ‘shout stop’ would be beneficial, what is required is a changing of the perception of corruption (legal or otherwise) to encourage more people to take action. I’m not sure if a law will do that. Continue reading “Thoughts on TI meeting, Ireland and corruption”