THE current attention on east Belfast organisation Charter NI after the allocation of £1.7 million of Social Investment Fund money may be headline news but that doesn't mean this is a new or rare occurrence.
In fact Charter has benefited from much more than £1.7 million over the years from various government bodies as have numerous other organisations that employ ex-prisoners and former paramilitary figures.
And like numerous other groups Charter is also an organisation that runs worthwhile projects and employs people who are trained to work in that sector.
Which is why the increasingly embarrassing figure of self confessed UDA commander Dee Stitt as Charter NI Chief Executive does the organisation and its staff no favours.
If there were any doubt over Mr Stitt's suitability to direct an organisation with a multi million pound turnover, then you need look no further than a bizarre interview he gave to a reporter for the Guardian newspaper.
The clip was only recorded in the last few weeks, after this paper drew attention to the allocation of SIF money without open competition to the UDA linked group.
Mr Stitt has also been under considerable media scrutiny from the BBC Spotlight team, the Nolan Show and the Sunday Life newspaper.
Knowing this he still thought it a good idea to showboat in front of the camera, saying the British government "doesn't give a f**ing f*** about'" loyalist communities and most notably that the loyalist flute band North Down Defenders was "our homeland security".
There has to be better people within loyalism in east Belfast to take that organisation forward than some cardboard cutout UDA man wearing a t-shirt two sizes too small and with no mental filter. In fact there are better people, I've met plenty of them over the years.
Regardless of what members of the DUP and Sinn Féin coalition might claim, asking questions about the allocation of millions of public money is not anti peace process, anti loyalist or anti working class.
In fact privileged political reps with endless expense accounts and chauffeur driven cars calling anyone anti working class is downright insulting.
It's not snobby to question why the CEO of an organisation that has benefited from millions of public funding is giving cringe worthy interviews, for Dee Stitt doesn't live like most working class people, he lives a life much more privileged as a result of a publicly funded role he doesn't appear to take very seriously.
You have to wonder had Jeffrey Donaldson not been cornered by Stephen Nolan this week would anyone from the DUP have admitted the unsuitability of Stitt to head up Charter NI.
But with the Stitt show attracting so much attention there is a danger of becoming distracted from the wider issue.
Funding to both loyalist and republican communities has been part and parcel of the peace process, at times controversially so.
Successive British and Irish governments have been happy to neuter the paramilitary threat by throwing money at it.
At a time when money for legacy inquests is being withheld by Stormont and political squabbling over pensions for victims is ongoing you can understand why such pay outs cause outbursts of public anger.
But it would be remiss of me as a reporter to dismiss all such organisations because of the actions of the few.
At a recent exhibition to mark 20th anniversary of Lisburn Prisoner Support Project it was said that of the 130 prisoners the group have worked with none have re-offended or been returned to prison. Given the re-offending rate of those leaving the prison system this is quite remarkable.
The Resurgam Trust employs former prisoners, but you've only to look at the improvements in Lisburn's Old Warren estate to see that funding is reaching the community, a place families were once desperate to escape now has a lengthy waiting list of people wanting to live there.
If the DUP and Sinn Féin coalition really want to convince the public that the SIF fund is reaching those most in need then the answer is simple, open the process up to competition, make it transparent and accountable and don't be so arrogant as to accuse anyone who questions the behind doors allocation of millions in public funding of being anti-working class.
For to ask that money intended for deprived communities reaches those most in need is defending the working class not attacking them.
