County manager given 'inaccurate' information on shredded waste permit

A SENIOR official of Wicklow County Council who ordered the destruction of a waste permit worth €400,000 repeatedly gave his county manager misleading information in relation to the permit, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

According to a draft report of the Local Government Audit Service (LGAS), Wicklow county manager Eddie Sheehy claimed he had been given “inaccurate information” on “a number of occasions” in 2003 by his then director of environmental services Michael Nicholson. The report records that Mr Sheehy did not believe the actions warranted any type of disciplinary action. Mr Nicholson is now the council’s director of housing services.

As reported in The Irish Timesthis week the draft report from the LGAS found Mr Nicholson had removed a signed waste permit from council files on January 20th, 2003. The report said Mr Nicholson replaced the signed permit with an unsigned version and subsequently ordered the original to be shredded. It further noted Mr Nicholson or his department repeatedly denied to a number of councillors, the landowners in question and to their solicitors that a waste permit had been signed or issued.

The main LGAS report could not be found. But the information commissioner ruled the draft report should be released, noting it appeared to be “a largely factual statement of events” and that the “the main LGAS file has apparently disappeared without explanation”. A number of related documents and letters were also released.

According to the draft report Mr Sheehy “felt that he had been given inaccurate information by the director of environmental services in relation to queries that he had raised on a number of occasions in relation to the waste permit”. The report notes Mr Sheehy “believed that the actions taken did not warrant any type of disciplinary action as he felt there was never a deliberate attempt to mislead”.

According to the report Mr Sheehy said he believed the decision “to postpone” the issuing of the waste permit “was taken for legitimate grounds” because there was a “possibility that the council could incur unnecessary expenditure if it was issued”.

Asked to comment, Wicklow County Council said: “The Local Government Audit Service carried out a study of this matter in Wicklow County Council in 2005 and formed the view, from the documents examined and the interviews conducted with council staff, that an administrative error occurred within the council. Council staff co-operated fully with this study and made available all relevant documentation.”

The council released a copy of a letter from then minister for the environment Dick Roche to the county manager, dated January 11th, 2006, in which Mr Roche draws the county manager’s attention to the LGAS conclusion that an administrative error occurred and while these should be avoided “no specific recommendations are warranted”.

However, Independent Wicklow councillor Tommy Cullen, who tabled the FoI request, said the LGAS investigation was compromised in that it was precluded from taking evidence from the complainants in the case.

Mr Cullen pointed to a letter dated December 21st, 2005, to Mr Roche, in which the LGAS said while it was “aware of offers from elected members of Wicklow County Council to input into the process”, its legal provisions “do not allow for the invitation of submissions from the public or from members of the local authority”.

“I am repeating my call for a new inquiry,” he said.