A CHARITIES watchdog is investigating after a green energy group paid to process RHI applications claimed it would have been "ethically improper" to warn Stormont of flaws in the scheme.
Action Renewables earned almost £250,000 advising on around 550 applications to the botched Renewable Heat Incentive scheme.
The successful applicants account for about £300 million in taxpayer subsidies committed over 20 years.
Action Renewables' managing director Michael Doran last year appeared on a BBC Spotlight programme outlining flaws in the RHI scheme.
However, when asked last week why no-one within the charity relayed concerns to the government, he told The Irish News: "That's not what we were employed to do.
"If you're employed on behalf of a client to make an application it would then be ethically improper to then undermine that application by trying to have it withdrawn.
"The fact that the government created the scheme that some people now think is over incentivised is not our responsibility."
DUP economy minister Simon Hamilton described the comments as "deeply troubling", while Alliance's Stewart Dickson wrote to the Charity Commission calling for an investigation.
Last night the Charity Commission for Northern Ireland confirmed it has "opened a concern" into Action Renewables.
A spokesman said: "The commission's role is to ensure that charities operate within the scope of the charity law and it is on this basis that any investigation conducted by the commission is conducted.
"As a proportionate regulator, and so as to ensure that the investigation is fair, the commission will not be making any further comment while the investigation is ongoing."
