Consultant says inquiry had 'predefined theory'

THE LEAD consultant to the 1995 mobile phone licence competition said the Moriarty tribunal had a “predefined theory” when conducting its nine-year inquiry.

Michael Andersen told the former government minister Michael Lowry he believed the tribunal’s theory was based on assumptions that were wrong.

The tribunal did not allow Mr Lowry, who represented himself, to question Prof Andersen about his private dealings with the tribunal and his view formed in 2002 that it had a bias.

The chairman Mr Justice Michael Moriarty said counsel for the tribunal would like to enter the witness box to give evidence about allegations that have been made against them.

However, he said he was going to stick by his ruling that questions could not be asked about the bias allegation.

Prof Andersen said he believed the bid from Esat Digifone, which won the licence competition, was one of the best he had ever seen.

Mr Lowry asked if it had been put to him in private by tribunal counsel that these were “fictitious and false”. However he was not allowed to continue the point.

Asked if he had been surprised by the lack of expertise he experienced among the tribunal team, Prof Andersen said he was not. He said in 2001 he had been asked by the tribunal if he would act as a consultant to it, and people who looked for a consultant were seeking assistance, so he could not say he had been surprised, as suggested by Mr Lowry.

Prof Andersen said he believed the competition was conducted in a fair manner and arrived at a result that was relatively clear. He asked how it could then be subjected to an inquiry that had lasted nine years. The only explanation was that there was a belief that wrongdoing had occurred.

He said his observation of the tribunal was that it had made errors, right up to the opening statement made by Jacqueline O’Brien SC last week. There was “a consistency of error” emanating from the tribunal, he said.