An irate statement has been made by MLA and Policing Board member Jimmy Spratt in response to yesterday’s resignation of Chief Executive Adrian Donaldson. In it he claims that the head of the Policing Board was forced into resignation after ‘being blamed for the board’s ills.’
Mr Spratt, DUP, says he fears for the future of the board, in light of how Mr Donaldson was treated by his colleagues. He even goes so far as to suggest that the long leave of absence taken by the chief executive, due to health concerns, was not of Mr Donaldson’s choosing but because ‘he could no longer work in the environment created around him.’
Mr Spratt, from the Belfast Telegraph:
‘Adrian Donaldson’s demise doesn’t help the board
one iota...It will not solve any of the board’s problems — his disappearance is
only the tip of an iceberg that he inherited. It’s a board that needs a radical
overhaul and radical reform.’
Another member of the Policing Board, Sinn Fein MLA Alex
Maskey, says that Mr Spratt’s claims are extreme and that ‘[a]ny suggestion that somebody pushed a senior executive
out would be incorrect.’ He believes that the board must move forward from here
with its work and its search for a new chief executive.
Mr Donaldson’s resignation
comes at an unsteady time for the policing board, which in the past year has lost
its chairman, Barry Gilligan, and been subject to an independent review that
found the board to be ‘slow, bureaucratic and failing to provide value for its £8.8m
annual budget.’
