Waiting for SIPO

By Anthony Sheridan

On 12 July last I submitted a formal complaint to the Standards in public Office Commission [SIPO] against Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt. 

Watt was the principal architect behind the arrangement which could have seen the unauthorised spending of several millions of taxpayers money to fund the secondment of Dr. Tony Holohan to Trinity College Dublin.

I received the following acknowledgement:

The matter is under consideration and you will be notified by the office in due course.

 101 days later, having heard nothing I emailed the following:

I would be grateful if you could update me on the progress, if any, of my complaint.  

I would be happy to simply know if the issue has moved on from the ‘under consideration’ phase.

Regards

There was no reply.

Five days later I sent the email again and, finally, got a reply.

I acknowledge receipt of your emails dated 20 and 25 October 2022.

The Commission considered your complaint at its meeting on 21 October and has asked the Secretariat to provide some additional information for their further consideration.

You will be notified when the Commission has made a decision on the matter.

So, the complaint was submitted on 12 of July but only ‘considered’ on 21 Oct after two reminders from me.

Will I be waiting another century of days?