The British government's proposals on policing reform in the North have been strongly criticised by the body which currently oversees the RUC.
The Northern Ireland Police Authority issued what its chairman predicted to be its last annual report before it is replaced by a new Policing Board.
The move is part of the Policing Bill which will soon reach the British House of Lords. The board will be made up of Assembly members as well as directly appointed members.
The authority's chairman, Mr Pat Armstrong, and his deputy, Prof Herb Wallace, warned that parts of the Bill's proposals were entirely contrary to what had been envisaged in the Patten report on policing.
Mr Armstrong called on the British government to ensure that the "strong, independent and powerful Policing Board envisaged by Patten is created by addressing the deficiencies in this Bill immediately". He said the overall impact of the legislation would produce a less powerful Policing Board but a Northern Secretary with greater powers. This was "exactly what Patten argued against".
Prof Wallace said the most serious shortfall was in the area of independent inquiries. "There is in the Bill, as Patten recommended, a new power for the board to initiate inquiries into various aspects of policing. However, that power . . . will be incapable of exercise," he said.
Under the Bill as at present proposed, the Northern Secretary, or possibly a future Assembly minister, could veto both any inquiry and anyone proposed by the board to conduct the inquiry. Any inquiry would also be constrained by the fact that the board would have to conduct it out of its own budget of around £2 million.
Prof Wallace said the authority was concerned about proposals which would limit the board's ability to oversee the finances of the new police service. The Bill will also transfer the authority's powers to set police performance targets away from the new board into ministerial hands. This would "devalue and diminish" the board, he said.
Both the SDLP and Sinn Fein welcomed the authority's statements. The Sinn Fein North Belfast MLA, Mr Gerry Kelly, said the fact that `the British government's own creation" had turned on it was proof of that government's failure to implement Patten.
Mr Seamus Mallon criticised Mr Mandelson over the issue and said the current Bill was "jeopardising the establishment of a police force acceptable to both sides of the community". An SDLP spokesman reiterated its position that as the Bill stood, the party would not take up its seats on the board.
Speaking in Canada, Mr Mandelson maintained "the new Police Board would have powers unrivalled in Western Europe to hold the Chief Constable and his officers to account".