NI Water – Page 4 – Slugger O'Toole

NI Water: Senior executives failed to act on early signs of crisis…

Mick Fealty on December 30, 2010, 5:55 pm

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One of the things that’s important to note is just how little experience in running a water utility remains at board level in Northern Ireland Water. When Minister Murphy sacked the last Board he cashiered a group of people who had some sixty years experience between them of working in the water industry. The new board has virtually none. Mr MacKenzie, who himself had no experience of water before his appointment, having rid himself of that experience then proceeded to issue …

Your experiences of the water crisis?

Mick Fealty on December 29, 2010, 5:35 pm

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In terms of burst water pipes, the focus just now is on NI Water, just as earlier in the middle of the freeze it was on the NI Housing Executive, who now seem roughly to have gotten things back in hand. But the scale of the problems facing the two organisations are vastly different. Unlike the Republic where it is the responsibility of 88 separate local authorities, NI Water is solely responsible for the supply of water to homes and industry; …

OFMDFM: “NI Water’s response was clearly inadequate…”

Pete Baker on December 29, 2010, 4:14 pm

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Which “officials” were “summoned” to Stormont this morning by Martin McGuinness, and in what capacity the Northern Ireland deputy First Minister was acting, isn’t entirely clear – as we only have a Sinn Féin press release to go on. But the “stocktake meeting in the morning at NI Water” mentioned here by the relevant Minister, Sinn Féin’s Conor Murphy, seems to have been pushed back into the afternoon as a result. What we do have is a joint OFMDFM statment today In …

The reservoirs are empty!

Moochin Photoman on December 28, 2010, 6:17 pm

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So despite having quite alot of precipitation it seems the system cannot cope and the statement released by NI Water confirms that large parts of Belfast are without water as the reservoirs are nearly empty. Having tried and failed to get unto the NI Water website i’m still non the wiser as to if and when the water will be back on. From what i can gather on facebook BT5 – BT12 is without water but looking at the statement …

NI Water: Mr MacKenzie walked away from ‘identified savings’…

Mick Fealty on December 24, 2010, 12:55 pm

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The BBC the other day made rare mention of Northern Ireland Water’s irregularities over the issuing of contracts. These are the breaches that were taken by the Minister (acting on the rather pointed advice of former Permanent Secretary, Paul Priestly) as a premise for the high profile sacking of four non executive directors of the company. It was taken to mean at the time that this represented losses, or monies misspent. But as we’ve demonstrated on Slugger time and time again, that …

“Clearly something has got to give…”

Pete Baker on December 23, 2010, 3:03 pm

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Unsurprising economic illiteracy aside, the political posturing in the draft Northern Ireland budget re-allocation comes at a cost. As Liam Clarke points out in the News Letter In October 2007 it was hoped, not unreasonably, that the shortfall could be met by selling government land and buildings into the booming property market. Stormont was like a family funding an extension by remortgaging its house, but unfortunately the bottom fell out of the property market almost as soon as the plan …

NI Water: ICO launch ‘depth’ investigation of emails…

Mick Fealty on December 20, 2010, 10:21 pm

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And, so according to the Daily Mirror today (attached), the saga continues. Weather permitting, the Information Commissioner’s Office is sending a very senior investigative team to Northern Ireland Water before Christmas to look at two sets of issues surrounding regarding FOI requests for specific email correspondence. One will examine an allegation that the text of one email was altered before being offered for public release. The other will look at a separate allegation that the existence of an email exchange …

“in an open, transparent and independent manner…”

Pete Baker on December 11, 2010, 3:47 pm

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As the BBC reported on Thursday, the Northern Ireland Department for Regional Development has advertised for applications to a new permament board of directors at the troubled NI Water to replace the interim appointments made earlier this year. According to the advert in the Irish News It is expected that a Chair will be appointed in early 2011, with the remaining Non-Executive Directors being appointed in the Spring. Although, if the DRD statement in the BBC report is anything to go by, …

NI Water: External auditor offered NIW a retro-fit..

Mick Fealty on December 9, 2010, 1:50 pm

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MLAs are preparing to go into discussion of the NIAO’s long awaited report into the ongoing NI Water debacle that led to the sack of four out of five Non Executive Directors (even though apparently there was no fault found inside the organisation). They will find that the total value of the 74 cases investigated by internal Auditor Nicola Brennan in her ‘deep dive audit’, comes to £6 Million more than was orginally found. Interestingly of these, 41 (that is …

Northern Ireland Water: Procurement was a legacy of DRD management

Mick Fealty on December 6, 2010, 6:04 pm

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Hmmm… Northern Ireland Water, remember them? You thought they’d had gone away? Well, not quite. This week one of the main characters in the whole drama, Ms Nicola Brennan (formerly an external auditor; subsequently head of Internal Auditing at NI Water), gave a detailed four page interview to Internal Auditing magazine (150,000 readership). It’s remarkable for two reasons. One, it has been published whilst the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is in the middle of investigating many of the issues that are …

Sir Jon Shortridge concludes his inquiry…

Mick Fealty on November 24, 2010, 3:06 pm

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That’s what we’re hearing, although nothing’s officially been broken to the media as such. We understand that despite some internal lobbying from senior civil servants he is to recommend disciplinary action against Paul Priestley, the Permanent Secretary who drafted a letter attacking members of the Public Accounts Committee. It is also our understanding that the investigation went wider than Mr Priestley. As ever, be restrained in your comments! Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on …

“it’s up to the Executive whether to sell assets like Belfast harbour”

Pete Baker on October 22, 2010, 10:41 pm

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The Northern Ireland Executive met today [To decide what planet they’re living on? – Ed] to discuss the outcome of the 2010 Spending Review. Apparently, they now want to meet with either the “Coalition Government” or the “London Government”. In their statement they can’t decide which. Perhaps the UK Government would do? How about the Northern Ireland Secretary of State? He is a member of that government, after all. And as the NI Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, told the BBC “This is …

NI Water: Did whistle-blowing lead to a switch in contract?

Mick Fealty on October 14, 2010, 9:22 am

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I’ve uploaded this whistleblower correspondence. What passes as acceptable practice in DRD at the most senior level, does not measure up to its own policy standards. Here we have a complaint to the Permanent Secretary from the owner of Contracting Out, Sue Holmes. The original complaint is not included, but you can see from the paper trail that despite an explicit request from the complainent that the correspondence not be shared with anyone but the addressee. Within three hours on a …

NI Water: A serious management problem for Mr MacKenzie

Mick Fealty on October 8, 2010, 2:38 pm

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Both the Irish News and the News Letter have stories on a damning staff survey at Northern Ireland Water, taken months after the Board was removed which demonstrates that a serious management problem has set in under the stewardship of Laurence MacKenzie. For example, see this data on areas which identified as’ needing improvement’ (remember 60% is considered a poor score requiring ‘considerable focus’) Some of the attitudes might be attributable to external factors. For instance some of the 22% …

NI Water: How Mr MacKenzie jettisoned millions in commercial savings…

Mick Fealty on October 1, 2010, 8:39 am

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Adrian Rutherford was pretty close to the mark with his suggestion in Wednesday night’s paper edition of the Belfast Telegraph that Northern Ireland Water may have been ordered by the courts to pay out up to £10 Million in back payments to the French IT contractor Steria. In dispute had been payments for services to enable the charging of domestic water rates. Water rates which, of course, were never collected. To paraphrase NI Water’s Chief Executive’s presentation to the Public Accounts …

NI Water: Isn’t it time we were told what’s really been going there?

Mick Fealty on September 23, 2010, 9:35 am

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The Belfast Telegraph have a special piece in yesterday’s paper, which notes at the end just how little the general public understand the Northern Ireland Water story. Hardly surprising, since it has become almost the definitive insider’s insider story. Yet it is striking too that so few in the press appear able to convincingly explain the context for the first ever suspension of a Permanent Secretary in the history of Northern Ireland. Nor why the Northern Ireland Consumer Council would …

NI Water: Murphy contradicts his new Permanent Secretary?

Mick Fealty on September 22, 2010, 6:01 pm

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Now this is an interesting response from the Minister. Not least since it seems to contradict what his new Permanent Secretary has already told us: Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister for Regional Development, in relation to the Public Accounts Committee inquiry into NI Water, why his Department was reliant on Atkins Contractors to provide detail of the £5,222,144 paid by the Department to them between March 2002 and April 2007, in relation to DRD Water Service …

Consumer Council CEO: “Trust has broken down between some of the partners in the Partnership Agreement”

Pete Baker on September 20, 2010, 6:51 pm

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Strange timing by the Chief Executive of the Consumer Council for Northern Ireland, Antoinette McKeown, to declare that the body is withdrawing from the Stakeholders Partnership Agreement with NI Water and the Department for Regional Development. The UTV report suggests the release of emails between McKeown and Laurence MacKenzie was the cause of the breakdown of trust… In an unprecedented move, the Consumer Council says it has now lost trust in the company and the Government Department led by Conor Murphy. “To leak …

NI Water: So just how many STAs was DRD using?

Mick Fealty on September 17, 2010, 6:29 pm

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This Assembly Questions to the DRD Minister Conor Murphy should flush out some interesting answers about the use of Single Tender Actions inside the Department: 2. Mr P McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister for Regional Development how many single tender actions were issued by (i) Roads Service; (ii) Translink; and (iii) the Harbour Commissioner in (a) 2005/06; (b) 2006/07; (c) 2007/08; (d) 2008/09; and (e) 2009/10. 3. Mr P McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister for Regional …

NI Water: MacKenzie ‘cleared’ according to his own company’s records…

Mick Fealty on September 17, 2010, 4:44 pm

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I was away from Slugger Central for most of yesterday, tending to the needs of the day job (sorry!!). One fascinating little story appeared in the News Letter. Sam McBride notes: …in a move which is highly unusual in FoI responses, the public body threatened to take legal action if the revelation was ‘misreported’. “Any attempt to misreport or misrepresent NI Water’s position in this regard will be dealt with appropriately and if necessary by legal action,” it said. Misreported, …