PUBLIC confidence in the devolved institutions is being undermined because MLAs are refusing to improve the rigour of Stormont's complaints procedures, the assembly's standards watchdog has warned.
In his fifth and final report before leaving office in September, commissioner for standards Douglas Bain said his recommendations for bringing the way Stormont probes poor conduct into line with Westminster had effectively been ignored.
Mr Bain said the number of complaints lodged against MLAs last year was at an all-time low of nine, compared with 53 two years previously.
But rather than welcoming the fall in complaints about members' conduct, the standards watchdog said the reduction largely reflected a lack of public confidence in how such matters were handled.
Last year, the commissioner made four recommendations that he felt would enhance the assembly's complaints process, making it more like that used at Westminster.
The proposals were:
:: publishing brief details of all admissible complaints;
:: an end to a party political approach to conduct issues;
:: outlawing the use of a petition of concern in relation to complaints;
:: appointing independent lay members to the Committee on Standards and Privileges.
However, according to Mr Bain, the recommendations have thus far fallen on deaf ears.
"I believe that the reduction in complaints is due, in large part, to a continuing lack of public confidence in the complaints process and in the assembly itself," he said.
"Last year I made a number of confidence building recommendations – it is most disappointing that little or no action has been taken to implement any of them."
The standards watchdog said it was "wholly unsurprising" the number of complaints about MLAs' conduct had fallen.
"I believe that the only way this situation will be reversed is if my recommendations are implemented and I call for urgent action to be taken," he said.
