THE north's new commissioner for public appointments plans to resign from three quangos before taking up her post next month.
Lawyer and senior civil servant Judena Leslie – who is also known as Judena Goldring – will succeed John Keanie, who stepped down last month a year ahead of schedule. In her new job she is tasked with monitoring appointments to around 100 public bodies.
Ms Leslie is the wife of the late James Leslie, a former Stormont junior minister who died in 2009 aged 50. In 2006, Eton-educated Mr Leslie defected from the Ulster Unionists to the Conservatives.
Ms Leslie takes up the £24,000-a-year post on September 1 and will work an average of one-and-a-half days a week.
Mr Keanie left the commissioner's role after becoming frustrated with at a lack of change in the way quango members are selected.
Ahead of officially taking up the commissioner's post, Ms Leslie said she would resign from the three quangos she sits on. As a non-executive director of the Public Health Agency and board member of deputy chair of Council for Nature Conservation and the Countryside, the new commissioner earns a combined salary of £15,000, as well as being paid £147-a-day in her role as vice-chair of the Consumer Council.
SDLP assembly member John Dallat wished Ms Leslie every success in the commissioner's post but noted that she was "not exactly leading by example when it came to tackling serial quango appointments".
"There is an onus on the new commissioner not to be a nodding dog," he said.
"If she is to succeed in the role and ensure the whole public appointments process is more open and transparent then she will need to show determination and stand up to the reactionaries in the civil service."
