‘Misconduct’ probe draft report given to Mayor five months ago
BELFAST Lord Mayor Nuala McAllister received a “draft investigation report” into her alleged misconduct last year — although the final report has still not been released.
With two weeks to go before Ms McAllister steps down as first citizen, questions have been raised over why the probe has taken so long.
It has now emerged the Lord Mayor received the report into complaints against her in December 2017, according to documents from the Northern Ireland Ombudsman’s office.
In March 2016, 31 unionist and nationalist councillors reported Ms McAllister to the Ombudsman over an allegedly defamatory leaflet distributed on her behalf in north Belfast.
Under the headline ‘ What have they got to hide?’, the councillor criticised other parties who had opposed the audio recording of planning committee meetings at Belfast City Council.
Accompanying the article was a picture of a jar stuffed with cash.
In December 2016 the council passed an Alliance motion stating that all future meetings would be audio-recorded.
The resolution was supported by Sinn Fein, but was opposed by the DUP, SDLP and UUP on the grounds they had received legal advice warning of serious penalties for councillors should they make mistaken comments during any meetings.
When the leaflet was distributed, senior DUP, SDLP and UUP councillors alleged Ms McAllister had broken the councillors’ code of conduct for publishing material t hey vi e wed as “def amatory”.
The Ombudsman’s office said: “Our investigation to determine whether there was any breach of the councillors’ code of conduct with regards to an article within the pamphlet is in its final stages.”
One of the complainants, the DUP’s John Hussey, said the investigation was “already the longest investigation in the histor y of the Ombudsman’s office”.