A MAN sacked as a director of Northern Ireland Water three years ago by the then Sinn Fein minister Conor Murphy has won a rare public apology from a Stormont department.
Declan Gormley — who was fired by Mr Murphy in 2010 along with four other non-executive directors blamed for procurement problems at the publicly-owned utility — will now have all his legal bills paid for by the Department of Regional Development (DRD).Although there was never any suggestion that Mr Gormley or his colleagues had benefited from the contracts situation at NI Water, the businessman accused senior civil servants and Mr Murphy of attempting to scapegoat them over problems for which the department was responsible.
In December Mr Gormley won £80,000 from Sinn Fein — and left the party with a total legal bill estimated at £400,000 — after a jury unanimously found that the party had libelled him in two press releases about his dismissal.
The case which has been settled today related to a more serious allegation by the Claudy businessman.
He alleged abuse of public office by Mr Murphy, the DRD, former DRD permanent secretary Paul Priestly and three other civil servants.
When he announced the legal action in 2011, Mr Gormley told the News Letter that he was not interested in making money from the case and if he won he would only seek to recoup his legal costs and pledged to donate any compensation to charity.
However, the department refused to apologise and instructed taxpayer-funded lawyers to defend the case. And, despite the department changing from Sinn Fein to Ulster Unionist hands almost two years ago, Mr Murphy’s successor, Danny Kennedy, continued to defend the case despite several attempts by Mr Gormley to seek mediation.
In a written statement to the Assembly today, Mr Kennedy confirmed that he had agreed to apologise and that Mr Gormley had accepted the apology.
The UUP minister said: “Mr Gormley had taken his case as a result of the decision to dismiss him from the position of non-executive director with NI Water in March 2010 following the publication of a report by an Independent Review Team. At that time Conor Murphy, MP was Minister for Regional Development.
“Following the recent High Court Case in which Mr Gormley was awarded damages against Sinn Fein, he had indicated that all that he wanted from the litigation against the Department and the other defendants was an apology and the legal costs incurred in the case. In light of this statement I felt duty bound to ensure that this was explored with Mr Gormley’s legal advisers.
“Following tough negotiations by both parties it was eventually possible to reach a settlement on the basis of an apology on behalf of the department and the payment of Mr Gormley’s reasonable legal costs but without payment of damages.”
The terms of the settlement are expected to be read out in Belfast’s High Court next week and say: “The plaintiff will stay the proceedings on terms that he will obtain no relief from any of the defendants apart from the department, but the department will give an apology in the following terms:
“In March 2010 some of the non-executive directors of Northern Ireland Water Limited, including Mr. Declan Gormley were dismissed from the board of that company by the then Minister for Regional Development, Mr Conor Murphy. The department was the sole shareholder in the company.
“Whilst this is regretted, it would now be impracticable for the situation to be reversed.
“Notwithstanding this the department categorically acknowledges that Mr Gormley was not guilty of any personal wrongdoing or misconduct in his role as non-executive director of Northern Ireland Water. The department further acknowledges that his removal from office did not reflect adversely in any respect on his character or integrity.
“The department has now apologised to Mr Gormley and has agreed to pay his costs. Mr Gormley has accepted the apology, which is all that he wished to secure from this litigation. Accordingly the matter is now closed.”
Two years ago a detailed report by the Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee discredited the process which Mr Murphy’s department used to justify sacking all but one of the utility’s non-executive directors. It found that sections of the ‘independent review’ commissioned by Mr Murphy’s department and the basis for the directors’ sacking had in fact been redrafted by his top official.
It said that many of the procurement problems blamed on the directors were the department’s fault.
However, at the time Mr Murphy claimed that the findings had “vindicated the actions I took to address this, including the removal of four non-executive directors at NI Water”.
That last claim was judged by the High Court in December to be libellous.