Belfast Telegraph Belatedly Sets The Record Straight

Government unmasked ferry safety 'whistleblower' Wednesday, 10 December 2008 A potential whistleblower who raised safety concerns about the ferry he worked on was unmasked when the Government sent his personal details to his employer, it was revealed today. An official's decision to forward the emailed complaint to the operator of the Rathlin Island service in Northern Ireland, without shielding his identity, has been highlighted by a probe into the transfer of the £3 million contract to run ferries between the remote island and the Co Antrim coast. Independent investigators, who have identified a series of errors in the Stormont administration's procurement process, described the email incident as an error of judgment that should never have happened. While their report found no evidence to support any of the allegations the employee made against Rathlin Island Ferry Ltd, it said his confidentiality should have been respected by the Department of Regional Development. The man no longer works for the company. The DRD acknowledged its official had made a mistake but said no disciplinary action would be taken because the incident did not represent a breach of data protection regulations. The email was sent in July this year, a week after Rathlin Island Ferry replaced Scottish company Calmac** as the operator of the passenger service between Ballycastle and the island. All ferry staff who had worked for Calmac, which had been operating the six-mile crossing since 1996, were transferred into the employment of the new operator as part of the contract deal. The decision to change the operator triggered a flurry of complaints to the DRD, prompting them to initiate an inquiry into the contract award, which had originally been handled by the Department of Finance's Central Procurement Directorate (CPD). Auditors and other independent experts were asked to investigate a number of claims, including allegations the award was politically motivated and the process was not transparent. The DRD also tasked the team to probe claims of misconduct concerning its staff, among them the incident with the email and another allegation that staff harassed and bullied a ferry employee. Their final report, which was published today, pinpointed a number of procedural mistakes in the procurement process but said there was no evidence to suggest there was an attempt by CPD to manipulate the outcome of process, or that the contract was awarded to the wrong operator. The investigators found that the CPD had used a different scoring framework in judging the two bidders from the one they originally sent out to the operators. However, they said this had not effected the outcome and, based on value for money criteria, Rathlin Island Ferry Ltd still represented the best option. The report did question why a performance bond, which would compel either party to compensate the other if they broke the terms of the £50,000 a year agreement, was not included in the contract between the new operator and DRD when it was an original requirement of the deal. Investigators did acknowledge that such a bond was never part of the previous contract with Calmac. The bullying claim centred on the treatment of a Calmac employee in the period before the transfer when DRD was attempting to provide the new company with information about the service. The employee said DRD staff had harassed him when he declined to copy log book information

from Calmac so they could pass it to Rathlin Island Ferry. However the inquiry found no evidence to support the claim and noted that Calmac employees and DRD officials had a long-standing good relationship. The investigators also discovered that a number of the original complaints about the tender process had been made by someone using a false name. The report made a total of 12 recommendations to CPD and DRD, among them a need to ensure all staff know how to handle personal information. A DRD spokeswoman welcomed the findings. "The overall conclusion of the report is that there was nothing untoward in the Department's approach and decision making," she said. Members of the DRD's Stormont scrutiny committee were briefed on the findings of the report today. Chairman and North Belfast Assembly member Fred Cobain said he and his colleagues had concerns about the lack of transparency around the procurement process and how the mistakes that had been made created a perception of wrongdoing. "The Department told the committee that it accepts the report recommendations and that appropriate action, including training, is required to begin to repair the damage caused to public confidence in the public procurement process," he said. The Ulster Unionist MLA added: "Undoubtedly there are lessons to be learned. Today's session is the beginning of the process, and we are looking forward to working with the Department in improving and enhancing its performance in this area, and improving public confidence. "The committee welcomes the publication of the Department for Regional Development's independent investigation, and the speed with which the investigation was conducted."

Rathlin Island Ferry Monday, 3 August 2009 Our article of 10 December 2008 ("Government unmasked ferry safety ‘whistleblower'") reported that the identity of a Rathlin Island Ferry employee who had raised concerns about safety procedures had been revealed to the company by the Department of Regional Development. We now understand that information contained in our article inadvertently identified the employee concerned. We would like to apologise for this intrusion, and to clarify that the whistleblower’s concerns related to risk assessments on new vessels rather than to safety concerns about the ferry he worked on, as reported. The article also reported that an employee of Calmac – who had previously operated the ferry passenger service – had claimed that DRD staff had harassed him when he declined to copy log book information to pass to Rathlin Island Ferry. In fact, the individual was asked to copy International Safety Management documentation. While the inquiry found no evidence to support the claim of bullying, it did confirm that a request to copy such information was made, contrary to the impression that may have been created by our article. We are happy to set the record straight. ** Rathlin Ferries Limited, not Calmac