Annual Report 2005

Own Initiative Inquiries

In its Annual Report for 2004, the Standards Commission noted that while it can appoint an Inquiry Officer where a complaint is made in relation to a specified act or a contravention of the Ethics Acts, it cannot do so if it is acting on its own initiative and has not received a complaint. The role of an Inquiry Officer in the case of a complaint is to make a preliminary inquiry into the matter complained of. The Ethics Acts give the Inquiry Officer powers to:

• procure the evidence of the complainant or of any other relevant person;
• put such evidence before the person the subject of the complaint;
• allow the person the subject of the complaint to make a statement;
• conduct interviews with the complainant and the person the subject of the complaint;
• request the production by a person of any relevant document in the possession or control of the person; and
• report in writing to the Standards Commission.

Such a report would not contain any determinations or findings, but would, if the Standards Commission so requested, include an expression of the opinion of the Inquiry Officer as to whether there was prima facie evidence to sustain the complaint.

Again in its appearance before the joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance and the Public Service in May 2005 (see Chapter 4) the Standards Commission expressed the view that the legislation should be amended so that an Inquiry Officer can be appointed in cases where the Standards Commission wishes to pursue a matter under the legislation but has not received a complaint.

In a response on this matter to a parliamentary question during 2005, the Minister for Finance indicated that he was not aware that the Standards Commission had made a formal proposal to his Department that the Ethics Acts should be amended to facilitate the appointment of Inquiry Officers. The Minister stated that he was satisfied that the powers of the Standards Commission, as they stand, are ample to meet public concerns in the field of public life. The Minister went on to say that he would find it difficult to accept that the appointment of inquiry officers would be justified in circumstances where a formal complaint had not been made to the Standards Commission from one of the numerous categories of persons, including members of the public and any public representative.

The Standards Commission is disappointed with this response. It remains of the view that the legislation should be amended to allow it to appoint an Inquiry Officer when considering whether or not to investigate a matter in the absence of a complaint. Contrary to any view which might be held that it might wish to embark on 'fishing expeditions', the Standards Commission does not envisage having to avail of such a facility in any but the most exceptional of circumstances. It considers that the exercise of its powers to investigate on its own initiative would only be used as a last resort where other procedures had not been invoked or had been ineffective in matters of significant public importance.

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