Mystery Shrouds NRA Member's Resignation |
NRA unaware of resignation |
Mr. Peter Langford, Chairman of Arups consulting engineers has resigned from the board of the NRA. His resignation was sent to the Minister for the Environment and Local Government on June 19 last but was only made public a month later on Thursday July 19. Yet at a public meeting in Knocktopher, Co Kilkenny on June 25 when Mr. Michael Tobin, CEO of the NRA, was asked specific questions about the presence of Mr. Langford on the board of the NRA, he made no reference to Mr. Langford having resigned. Members of the public alleged that there was a potential conflict of interest in having the chairman of a company involved in road building on the board of the organisation responsible for that same road building. Mr. Tobin defended Mr. Langford’s position, saying that he had considerable expertise in road construction and had absented himself from any meetings where projects that Arups had an interest in were discussed. Mr. Tobin rejected calls for Mr. Langford to resign. But by this date Mr. Langford had resigned. The Irish Examiner ran a story about alleged conflict of interest on Wednesday June 27 and contacted the NRA for comment. Mr. Tobin again said that board members absent themselves from discussions where there might be a conflict of interest. Mr. Langford, in the same article, claimed that “all board members religiously withdrew from discussions where there was any potential conflict of interest.” Neither person mentioned that Mr. Langford was no longer a member of the NRA, having resigned from the board the week before. A spokesperson for the NRA claimed that here is nothing unusual in this procedure, that members of the board resign to the minister and do not have to inform the NRA. “It could take up to two weeks for the information to filter though to the NRA from the Minister’s office”, said Mr. Michael Egan, “and Mr. Langford had given no indication that he was going to resign” 25/7/2001 |