SENIOR civil servants are an odd bunch at the best of times. Portrayed as Sir Humphreys from the classic sit com, ‘Yes, Minister’, they are often the hidden hand behind decision making.
And it is a wise Minister who takes the time to listen to their advice.
The SDLP’s lone ministerial representative on the Executive, Margaret Ritchie this week heard that a judicial review on her decision not to fund the Conflict Transformation Initiative (after the UDA continued its internal feuding and criminality) will cost the taxpayer £300,000. That’s almost a third of the total CTI fund.
While Margaret might have had the best of intentions, it is clear that she had a deaf ear to protests that there was a better way.
It was ruled that the better way was to make sure her colleagues in the Executive were consulted in appropriate time.
Now the Minister may have believed that they would not back her stance. But when the then Head of the Civil Service, Nigel Hamilton, told her that her decision would break the Ministerial Code a legal challenge was almost inevitable.
That legal challenge was successful. The SDLP this week dismissed the result as a technicality. A costly technicality!
With the Children’s Commissioner claiming her challenge to laws on smacking kids was lost on a technicality too, it is timely to remind politicians and public servants that they may be acting with laudable intent, but it is not their money.
Yep, next time you receive your pay check, just note how much you contribute to these legal technicalities.
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