DEFICIENT PROCEDURES in Mayo County Council are also in place in other local authorities, the chairman of the Standards in Public Office Commission has said in a letter to the Minister for the Environment.
The letter, written by Mr Justice MP Smith, follows the commission’s finding last month that the council’s senior executive engineer used his position for personal gain.
It found Kieran Lynn contravened a section of the Local Government Act 2001 “by using his official position in Mayo County Council and the resources of the council for personal gain in that works were carried out to improve an access to his lands at Cushalogurt, Westport, Co Mayo”.
At a public sitting of the commission in November last year, Mr Lynn denied the allegation that he used his official position to improve access to property he owned.
The commission also found Mr Lynn contravened section 171 of the 2001 Act on four occasions by not disclosing his interests in certain properties in his annual declaration of interests.
Describing what he calls “deficiencies in the operation of the notice of motion procedure” operated by the council, Mr Justice Smith said such deficiencies were “also operated by some other, though not all, local authorities.”
He went on to say that during its Mayo investigation, it also emerged it was not unusual for employees of the council to approach members of the council in the expectation their areas would benefit from notice of motion monies”.
He criticised what he called “the complete lack of records relating to the use of public resources” in the Mayo case and called for a review to ensure that “scarce public resources are expended by local authorities in the public interest and not in the interests of private individuals, be they employees or members of local authorities or any other persons.”
