Ahern: Cullen to keep his job
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said tonight that Minister for Transport Martin Cullen’s future in the Cabinet is secure for now after a civil servant’s report cleared him of any wrongdoing.
The findings of ex-Revenue chief Dermot Quigley’s into Cullen’s awarding lucrative PR contracts in two Government departments to a political supporter warned some matters left him open to perceptions of impropriety.
Mr Ahern said he was satisfied that there was nothing in the 45-page findings published today to suggest Mr Cullen acted inappropriately.
“Martin Cullen continues as minister but I just hope that he can give us 100% attention to all the issues on his agenda because there’s a lot of them,” he said.
Mr Ahern also said recommendations in the report would be implemented and a new three-person committee would assess all PR contracts in future “to remove it from the political domain“.
State ethics watchdog, the Standards in Public Office Commission is meeting next week to decide if it will carry out its own probe into Mr Cullen.
Earlier, opposition leaders claim aspects of the report have left a stain on the Waterford TD’s record in office.
Including expenses and VAT, contracts awarded to PR consultant Monica Leech by the Office of Public Works and the Department of the Environment were worth €390,000 since 1997.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said: “The entire report is quite damaging if you read it carefully in that Mr Quigley could find no parallel for the Office of Public Works to have a consultancy in any regional location.
“The minister made a appointment in his own constituency of Waterford to look after matters there.
"That was a most unusual decision.”
Fine Gael’s environment spokesman Fergus O’Dowd said the report showed there were “numerous areas of questionable procedure, work content and costs involved”.
He called for the recommendations in the findings to be implemented and for PR contracts to be more transparent and publicly accountable.
The report stated there was no evidence that Mr Cullen attempted to intervene in the tendering process.
It also says there was no oral or written civil service advice to him against the procedure and there was little material difference between the services contracted for, and those actually provided.
But Mr Quigley did raise a number of concerns, particularly the fact that Mr Cullen proposed Mrs Leech’s name for the contract – which he said could give rise to a perception of impropriety.
Mr Quigley also criticised the lack of proper monitoring and recording of the work actually done, and said the contract should have been more widely advertised, and more firms should have been invited to tender for it.
He suggested new rules to tighten up procedures, including that advice should be issued to ministers about the need for care in suggesting a particular person for a contract.
Mr Ahern said he had directed that arrangements should be made to implement the recommendations made by Mr Quigley.
Mr Cullen today claimed the report completely exonerated him of any wrongdoing and said he wanted to get on with his job now.
“I have always known that I behaved properly and that the public interest was not damaged in any way,” he said.
He claimed that there had been a consistent pattern in the media of exaggeration and distortion of the facts.
He added: “Each of the claims made is comprehensively rebutted by the facts as now published.
“During this controversy, I decided on a policy of not commenting on every story and refusing to get dragged into responding to every comment.
“I’ve never used my personal life to promote myself either professionally or politically. The level of intrusion into my private life in this instance was clearly excessive but people can judge that for themselves.
“I would like be judged by my record of achievement in public office. Serving in Government is always challenging.”
He added that Monica Leech Communications was still as entitled as any company to apply for any department contracts or tendering processes.
