Category: Civil Service

Civil Servants: Protecting politicians rather than serving the State

The Irish Mail on Sunday (MoS) is, rightly, focusing on the disgraceful behaviour of civil servants who dealt with the Ned O’Keeffe allegations of fraud.

Reading the report in today’s paper I could immediately identify with the deep frustration of dealing with a secretive, arrogant bureaucracy determined to protect the interests of their political overlords at all costs.

The overall feeling when dealing with these people is one of powerlessness, that no matter what the alleged wrongdoing, the system is always going to protect the politician.

More disturbingly, there is a rapidly developing culture of invincibility among civil servants that no matter how badly they get things wrong, no matter how damaging their behaviour is to the public good, there will be no consequences.

Back in 2007, for example, I rang Dublin City Council with a very simple question.

Was Fianna Fail TD, and then minister, Pat the Cope Gallagher fined for illegally erecting election posters?

Nine months later, after numerous phone calls, emails, letters and formal complaints I finally succeeded in getting an answer.

Here are some of the bizarre/arrogant responses I got from so-called civil servants.

Bernie Lillis of Dublin City Council told me that it was her personal office policy not to reveal such information. It was, she claimed, a personal matter between her office and the politician.

The Standards in Public Office Commission rejected my complaint on the grounds that the matter (breaking of the law by a government minister on two separate occasions) was not of sufficient gravity to warrant an investigation.

Donegal County Council replied to my formal complaint (sent by post) that they could not investigate the matter, as they had received no formal complaint.

Mr. Appleby or Mickey Mouse in charge of ODCE – No difference

The Director of Corporate Enforcement, Paul Appleby, is the latest high profile civil servant to announce his retirement in order to avoid losing pension and lump sum entitlements.

By leaving now Mr. Appleby will be paid a lump sum of €225,000 of which only the final €25,000 will be subject to tax. He will also receive an annual pension of €73,000.

RTEs Business Correspondent, David Murphy, who described Mr. Appleby as a ‘very important individual’ did his best to make it sound as if Mr. Appleby’s departure was an important event especially in respect of the ongoing ‘investigation’ into Anglo Irish Bank.

Nothing could be further from the truth. If Mickey Mouse is chosen to replace Mr. Appleby the outcome of the Anglo Irish Bank ‘investigation’ will be the same – nobody will be charged, nobody will be jailed.

Mr. Appleby has been in charge of this so called enforcement agency that has never, not once, managed to bring any significant charges against any significant individual or organisation in its ten year history.

The ODCE was established after a series of corporate scandals (read major corporate fraud and criminality).

It was established specifically to deal with corporate fraud and criminality, it has failed totally in its remit.

It has never, not once, managed to nail any significant individual or organisation despite the fact that financial fraud and criminality is endemic within the Irish financial sector.

The ODCE, in common with all other so called enforcement agencies in our blighted country, is a useless toothless tiger and like all other so called enforcement agencies is designed, effectively, to prevent white collar criminals being brought to justice.

As Mr. Appleby heads off into the sunset with his (lottery) lump sum and pension he may feel he deserves his rewards.

If he does then he’s delusional.

In common with many other senior civil servants who were charged with serving the best interests of the Irish people Mr. Appleby has failed in his duty.

Copy to:

Mr. Appleby

Cardiff's pack of wolves gets him the job

Depressingly, the incompetent Mr. Cardiff has been gifted his fat cat job in Europe.

Two Irish MEPs who voted against Cardiff were interviewed on Today with Pat Kenny.

Socialist MEP Paul Murphy said that Ireland needs someone on the Court of Auditors with a record of independence and with a capacity for uncovering corruption.

Somehow I don’t think Cardiff fits that particular bill.

The one good thing to come out of this disgraceful saga is the emergence of that very, very rare phenomenon – a straight talking, principled Irish politician.

Nessa Childers is under no illusions about the consequences she may face for taking a principled stand on this matter.

The Labour Party is likely to exact a heavy price on her for failing to run with the pack of wolves that supported Cardiff.

Here’s what she had to say on the matter:

This is what happens when you voice an opinion. It felt like a pack of wolves had burst out of the undergrowth on top of me.

I began to see that something was going on at the highest levels of government to do with Mr. Cardiff and what happened was an attempt to stop me and two other MEPs from voicing our opinions.

I think that has very serious consequences about the way government operates in Ireland.

Cardiff accepts responsibility – sort of

Kevin Cardiff before the European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee.

On the double counting issue, (€3.6 billion) well that’s slightly different. On that I am at the head of the administrative pyramid responsible.

Not entirely, the National Statistics Office also is involved but I have to, as the responsible official say that yes, that was my organisation’s responsibility and therefore mine.

Cardiff just doesn’t have the ability to say – yes, I’m responsible without roping in those below him, the system, politicians or, in this case, the NSO.

But there is no doubt that he is accepting responsibility, without accepting that he should suffer any consequences, of course.

A Christmas fairy tale by Proinsias De Rossa

Welcome Mr. Cardiff and welcome to the hearing here today.

I have to say by way of preamble I’m very pleased that the Irish Government is offering a person of such in Ireland, of such integrity and qualifications for the job of auditor.

I have been arguing for a long time with my colleagues in government that we must that we must make a very serious contribution to Europe and we must do so by having people here who are of the highest quality and the highest qualifications.

I am therefore very pleased that they have, on this occasion at least, listened to me and that they have put forward Mr. Cardiff for this job.

I’m impressed by the openness in which you’re answering the questions here today. I would urge members not to pay attention to emails which are driven by party political considerations rather than considerations of fact and qualifications and the Treaty obligations that are on us as MEPs to ensure that the person we appoint here has integrity, independence and qualifications.

That’s the criteria we have to apply here today.

De Rossa: Nothing but an obnoxious bully

We know from De Rossa’s aggressive behavior towards fellow MEP Nessa Childers that he’s nothing but an obnoxious bully.

He was at it again on The Last Word (Thursday) in a discussion with Independent TD Shane Ross.

After De Rossa came to the end of a long rant in defence of Cardiff, the presenter, Matt Cooper asked Ross – Well, Shane what do you make of that?

Deputy Ross got to speak just nine words before the obnoxious De Rossa made an ignorant interruption.

Sorry Shane, you had a long run at this on this programme. I just want to take up a few points with you.

Cooper, with some difficulty, put the bully in his place before Ross could proceed.

Here are some other idiotic things De Rossa had to say.

It’s completely unfair to say that somebody at the top is incompetent because somebody else underneath him is incompetent.

The function of the head of an organisation is to try to ensure that it works effectively and efficiently.

When errors are discovered they have to investigate and ensure they don’t’ happen again. It doesn’t make sense that when a piece of important information gets stuck at a certain level and the person who has ultimate responsibility is not informed until late in the day that that person then takes the hit for an incompetent presumably at another level of the organisation.

It’s their responsibility to ensure that that incompetence is rooted out and that the mistake doesn’t happen again.

That’s what they’re ir paid for.

Following this logic the person at middle management who, according to Cardiff, was responsible for the accounting error, could claim:

Nothing to do with me Gov, my job is to root out incompetence by those beneath me.

So we can assume the janitor at the Dept. of Finance is down in the basement tearing his hair out trying to figure out how the hell he missed out on €3.6 billion.

Cardiff's sinister attack on freedom of speech

During a discussion on the Cardiff scandal (Today with Pat Kenny; Friday) economist Jim Power made an interesting revelation.

Apparently, about four years ago, Cardiff made a formal complaint to Power’s employer because he felt that the opinions expressed by Power were injurious to the state of the nation.

Power had expressed the opinion that if the Irish didn’t get their finances in order very quickly the country would ultimately default on its dept.

Clearly, Cardiff wanted Power’s employers to shut him up or even sack him.

This kind of sinister attack on freedom of expression is typical of all corrupt states.

We need more Lou McDonalds

Brian from Dublin sent a text to Today with Pat Kenny accusing Sinn Fein’s Mary Lou McDonald of being rude and personally offensive to Mr. Cardiff.

After rejecting the charge that she was rude and offensive Ms McDonald went on:

My entire interest in this has been driven by an absolute commitment and determination that we will have accountability at very senior level.

That we will see change and that we will see an end to the kind of cosy club and cronyism that has been a real, real problem in Irish politics for generations.

If other TDs were as committed to reforming our corrupt political system the Brian’s from Dublin and the Kevin Cardiff’s of this world could be safely consigned to the dustbin of history.

Cardiff rejection: The fallout

UK Independence Party MEP Marta Andreasen is one of the strongest objectors to the appointment of Kevin Cardiff.

Here’s her response to Cardiff’s rejection with my own comments.

The evidence was self-explanatory.

Correct, but only to politicians/countries where accountability is taken seriously. That is, countries where the common good is put above cronyism.

Kevin Cardiff’s reward for his blunder would have been a six-figure salary in an EU institution.

Such rewards/strokes lie at the heart of how things are done in Ireland.

It would have been a farcical appointment.

Correct but farce and embarrassment for Ireland doesn’t bother our gombeen politicians so long as their friends are looked after.

An auditor’s credentials must be beyond doubt.

This is not, and has never been, a requirement in Ireland.

Had he been given the job any integrity the Court of Auditors had would have laid in tatters.

The presence of the word ‘integrity’ in this sentence puts it beyond understanding for most Irish politicians.

Arrogant and incompetent Cardiff rejected by European Parliament

I’m absolutely delighted that Kevin Cardiff has been rejected by the Budgetary Committee of the European Parliament.

Irish MEP, Nessa Childers is to be congratulated for her courage in standing up to the highly aggressive bullying by the obnoxious Proinsias De Rossa and other members of the Labour Party.

Ms. Childers has submitted a complaint on the matter to the Labour Party but she’s very unlikely to get any satisfaction from that quarter.

I think she might have a better chance of justice if she was to submit a complaint to the European Parliament.