Complaint by NWRC Chairman against Foyle MLA: ‘trivial’

That is the verdict of the NI Assembly Commissioner for Standards, who had been asked to consider a complaint by North West Regional College (NWRC) Board of Governors Chairman Bertie Faulkner against Foyle MLA Pat Ramsey.

The complaint dates back to when Faulkner, alongside NWRC Principal Seamus Murphy, was called before the Committee for Employment and Learning following a deterioration in industrial relations at the North West Regional College.

At the time, the College was preparing to implement a redundancy programme on the basis of what had been referred to as the ‘curriculum audit’.

There followed successive requests for a copy of the ‘curriculum audit’ document, first from Mr Ramsey and then (on three occasions) from the Chairperson of the Committee for Employment and Learning. However, neither Murphy, nor Faulkner pointed out that the ‘curriculum audit’ was a process and not a document.

The Employment and Learning Committee later asked Mr Murphy and Mr Faulkner to attend a Committee meeting on March 14, 2012.

Bertie Faulkner and Seamus Murphy turned up to the meeting with no document. In response, Pat Ramsey said that “the two or three points” made by the Principal of the NWRC, Seamus Murphy, were merely “graphs... with no text at all.”

The Sentinel report on the committee meeting is still available online.

It was after this meeting that Bertie Faulkner alleged that the SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey made “unfounded and damaging accusations against the College’s Governing Body, as well as Mr Faulkner personally.”

The Committee for Standards and Priveleges at Stormont, having considered the Commissioner’s report into the complaint, rejected it.

Faulkner had objected to SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey’s assertions that evidence submitted to the Committee for Employment and Learning had been “manufactured and fabricated”; that the Governing Body was involved in a “cover-up”, and that he regarded Mr Faulkner as having no more to offer than “a bit of process”.

The NWRC Board of Governors Chairperson objected particularly to Mr Ramsey’s assertion that he (Mr Ramsey) had “grown men in tears telling me that you wrecked their lives”. Mr Faulkner also complained about a press statement issued by Mr Ramsey’s office several days later which repeated some of these claims.

The Commissioner for Standards concludes that Mr Ramsey’s allegation that the Redundancy Business Case document was “manufactured and fabricated” as part of a “cover-up” was understandable in the circumstances; his interruption of Mr Faulkner may have been unfortunate, but it was calm and not ruled out of order; and his allegation that Mr Faulkner had “grown men in tears” was “consistent with representations from staff and the findings of the independent review on industrial relations.”

The NI Assembly’s Committee on Standards and Privileges adds: “The Commissioner is scathing about the ‘extraordinary failure’ of Messrs Faulkner and Murphy to disabuse the Committee of their belief that the ‘curriculum audit’ was a document.”

It continues: “It is particularly notable that the Deputy Chairperson, who was chairing the meeting, only had to intervene once when it was Mr Faulkner rather than Mr Ramsey who was called to order.”

Other findings include: “The Commissioner has correctly pointed out that witnesses before a committee should expect to be asked questions and be subject to challenging comments. That is particularly the case when they have failed to co-operate fully, or are perceived to have so failed.”

“For a democracy to function properly the people’s elected representatives must be free to raise any matter.”