Stormont’s Committee for the Executive Office has ill-served David Gordon, the incoming Executive Press Secretary, by failing to fulfil its scrutiny function regarding his appointment.
Danny Kennedy MLA, who is Deputy Chair of the Committee, said:
“The Chairman was keen the Committee did three things. First ensure it understood the nature of this new post. Secondly, understand how the new appointee, Mr David Gordon, would interact with current Departmental structures, not least the Executive Information Service (EIS). Thirdly, the Chair wanted the Committee to take a view on whether they were unhappy that they were not consulted on the intention to appoint a Press Secretary. After all, the Committee’s primary statutory duty is to advise Ministers.
“It was immediately clear that some members were going to roll over and simply accept the will of their political masters. This is a dangerous precedent for the Committee to set and entirely contrary to our primary statutory duty of advising Ministers.
“They are also doing Mr Gordon a grave disservice. Given how he finds himself at the centre of a storm that shows little sign of dissipating, it would be better to do everything we can, even at this late stage, to introduce some clarity, openness and transparency to proceedings.”