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Public appointments assessor resigns

Quango watcthdog Dermot Feenan has resigned
Quango watcthdog Dermot Feenan has resigned Quango watcthdog Dermot Feenan has resigned

The north’s new public appointments commissioner is embroiled in a row over diversity on quango boards – six months after the same issue led her predecessor to quit.

But Judena Leslie has rejected claims that she did not act promptly after one of her watchdog’s independent assessors resigned amid claims that health officials were "effectively subverting" the public appointments code.

Barrister and academic Dermot Feenan, originally from Downpatrick, Co Down, quit his role monitoring the selection of a new board member for Belfast Health and Social Care Trust after voicing concerns about a failure to promote diversity. The boardroom post pays £8,000-a-year for roughly one day a week’s work.

Mr Feenan claims there were two potential breaches by health officials of the quango commissioner’s recruitment guidelines. The first was the insistence by the department that material be used in the recruitment process that was not approved by the selection panel. The second breach, according to Mr Feenan, was the "absolute refusal" of Department of Health officials to allow him to review the material.

Having concluded in his assessment that the department was not abiding by the code of practice for public appointments, Mr Feenan contacted the commissioner to raise his concerns. However, Mr Feenan claims Ms Leslie "did not act promptly or decisively," leaving him no other option but to quit last month.

Regarded as an academic authority on diversity in public life, Mr Feenan is a former Ulster University lecturer who now works as a research fellow in the University of Portsmouth’s School of Law.

He told The Irish News the issues which prompted him to quit chimed with concerns voiced by former quango commissioner John Keanie, who resigned last July complaining of Stormont inertia and civil service resistance to promoting diversity.

"I identified a situation where bureaucratic resistance was frustrating equality and fairness – the department officials were effectively subverting the letter and spirit of the code," Mr Feenan said.

"I subsequently resigned because I believe that when I made the commissioner aware of what was going on there was not prompt, decisive and supportive action."

Since Mr Feenan’s resignation, Ms Leslie has accepted his "concerns were partly justified" but said they were not sufficiently serious to halt the appointment process. She also rejected the claim that the issues raised by Mr Feenan "were directly relevant to diversity issues."

The commissioner said the Department of Health had since given "full written assurances" that it would address the concerns raised by the independent assessor.

"I reject Mr Feenan’s assertion that this dispute between him and the department is damaging to the promotion of diversity," Ms Leslie told The Irish News.

"I equally reject his suggestion that I or my office did not respond to his concerns – on the contrary we moved quickly to settle the issues in dispute."

Ms Leslie said she was "very focussed" on increasing diversity across quango boards and had undertaken several initiatives, including "arranging a number of workshops to facilitate this objective."

A statement from Department of Health said the appointment process was "in full compliance" with official guidelines.

"This is the process followed for all public appointment competitions," the statement said.