Last week Michael Dwyer, a 24 year Irish man from Tipperary, was killed by Bolivian special forces police in Santa Cruz. We covered the story on Sunday. As in so many cases now where people suddenly find themselves under attention a lot of the information about Dwyer (and photos) was instantly gleaned from his Bebo and Facebook pages.
A week on from the shooting and Michael Dwyer's body has arrived back in Ireland. But we are no clearer in finding out how Dwyer came to be involved with Eduardo Rozsa Flores , who was clearly a dangerous man. We have also got little explanation for what exactly happened in that hotel. The Bolivian police story that there was a 30 minute shoot out seems like bunkum.
Friday, April 24, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
That million euro typo
Last week we published details of how Dermot McCarthy, the state's most senior civil servant, signed off on a daily €250 overpayment to two Moriarty tribunal lawyers which has cost the state over €1m in last seven years.
This story was following up one we did back in February after a report from the Comptroller & Auditor General.
The strangest thing that emerged from the Freedom of Information documents released by both the Department's of Finance and Taoiseach was that one department didn't know what the other was doing.
In May 2002 Finance and the Attorney General (AG) agreed Moriarty lawyers would get €2,250 a day and told officials in the Taoiseach's dept.
A month later McCarthy sent a fax to the lawyers based on figures from a piece of paper that had incorrectly recorded the daily rate as €2,500.
An honest mistake. But on July 2 McCarthy the AG and Finance met and confirmed the Moriarty lawyers would get €2,250. In a statement McCarthy says he didn't realise he'd agreed a higher rate in June at this stage.
But a day late he definitely did. According to a draft letter McCarthy sent on July 3 to the Moriarty lawyers he pointed out that the lawyers had a higher rate than other tribunals. He said this was approved for them on a "personal basis".
A week later though Finance were none the wiser. Eric Hartmann, a Finance official, even drafted a letter of offer for the lawyers at the €2, 250 rate. It only became apparent the lawyers had secured a better deal when they sent in a fee note for the €2,500 "McCarthy rate". Hartmann, however, made it clear what he thought about this.
He wrote a memo saying the rate of €2,250 was the only rate ever agreed "or even discussed".
The AG and Finance were eventually consulted and sanction was given for the higher rate. But of course there was no other choice at this stage considering the Moriarty lawyers had two letters confirming they would be paid €2,500 a day.
The question is: why didn't McCarthy seek sanction from Finance before confirming his original mistake (and committing extra state resources) by sending his July 3 letter?
On Sunday we published more details of how the tribunal lawyers lobbied to get the pay rate raised from the original rate of €1,715 a day. This may explain why McCarthy was so keen to sign off on a new deal with the lawyers. The taoiseach's office was warned that by not giving the lawyers a rise it was affecting the day-to-day running of the inquiry.
Well the lawyers got their raise and the tribunal has rumbled on since 2002. Ironically the pay for the lawyers has finally been pulled back in recent weeks by 8% due to the recession. Although because of the "typo" Healy and Coughlan are still earning more than the €2,250 the Mahon tribunal lawyers got before this 8% cut.
We'll get to see some of what the tribunal has been up to when it resumes public hearings tomorrow with Christopher Vaughan, a solicitor, taking the stand. As said previously, its draft findings are very controversial.
This story was following up one we did back in February after a report from the Comptroller & Auditor General.
The strangest thing that emerged from the Freedom of Information documents released by both the Department's of Finance and Taoiseach was that one department didn't know what the other was doing.
In May 2002 Finance and the Attorney General (AG) agreed Moriarty lawyers would get €2,250 a day and told officials in the Taoiseach's dept.
A month later McCarthy sent a fax to the lawyers based on figures from a piece of paper that had incorrectly recorded the daily rate as €2,500.
An honest mistake. But on July 2 McCarthy the AG and Finance met and confirmed the Moriarty lawyers would get €2,250. In a statement McCarthy says he didn't realise he'd agreed a higher rate in June at this stage.
But a day late he definitely did. According to a draft letter McCarthy sent on July 3 to the Moriarty lawyers he pointed out that the lawyers had a higher rate than other tribunals. He said this was approved for them on a "personal basis".
A week later though Finance were none the wiser. Eric Hartmann, a Finance official, even drafted a letter of offer for the lawyers at the €2, 250 rate. It only became apparent the lawyers had secured a better deal when they sent in a fee note for the €2,500 "McCarthy rate". Hartmann, however, made it clear what he thought about this.
He wrote a memo saying the rate of €2,250 was the only rate ever agreed "or even discussed".
The AG and Finance were eventually consulted and sanction was given for the higher rate. But of course there was no other choice at this stage considering the Moriarty lawyers had two letters confirming they would be paid €2,500 a day.
The question is: why didn't McCarthy seek sanction from Finance before confirming his original mistake (and committing extra state resources) by sending his July 3 letter?
On Sunday we published more details of how the tribunal lawyers lobbied to get the pay rate raised from the original rate of €1,715 a day. This may explain why McCarthy was so keen to sign off on a new deal with the lawyers. The taoiseach's office was warned that by not giving the lawyers a rise it was affecting the day-to-day running of the inquiry.
Well the lawyers got their raise and the tribunal has rumbled on since 2002. Ironically the pay for the lawyers has finally been pulled back in recent weeks by 8% due to the recession. Although because of the "typo" Healy and Coughlan are still earning more than the €2,250 the Mahon tribunal lawyers got before this 8% cut.
We'll get to see some of what the tribunal has been up to when it resumes public hearings tomorrow with Christopher Vaughan, a solicitor, taking the stand. As said previously, its draft findings are very controversial.
Guantanamo's future Irish resident?
From Brian Cowen's visit to America from St Patrick's day last month we got the announcement that Ireland would take a few Guantanamo prisoners for resettlement. Amnesty say the detainees who would come to Ireland aren't the hardened Al Qaeda types but guys that have been imprisoned because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time and have suffered seven years of jail and interrogation as a consequence.
Michael Mone, an American lawyer, reckons Oybek Jabbarov, his client, is more Borat than Sheikh Khalid Mohammad. Mone has sold Ireland to Jabbarov as a destination and has even brought him pictures of Ireland - including one of a field of sheep he downloaded from the web.
The New York Times has done a brilliant project tracking and archiving the charges against the Guantanamo prisoners.
Included in this is Jabbarov. We can see he was a soldier with the Uzbekistan army before he travelled to Tajikistan and then Afghanistan. While his story about how he lost his passport is strange (basically he says his brother stole it) the evidence the Americans have against him is very thin. Holding someone away from their family for over seven years on what amounts to hearsay evidence is an incredible human travesty.
Michael Mone, an American lawyer, reckons Oybek Jabbarov, his client, is more Borat than Sheikh Khalid Mohammad. Mone has sold Ireland to Jabbarov as a destination and has even brought him pictures of Ireland - including one of a field of sheep he downloaded from the web.
The New York Times has done a brilliant project tracking and archiving the charges against the Guantanamo prisoners.
Included in this is Jabbarov. We can see he was a soldier with the Uzbekistan army before he travelled to Tajikistan and then Afghanistan. While his story about how he lost his passport is strange (basically he says his brother stole it) the evidence the Americans have against him is very thin. Holding someone away from their family for over seven years on what amounts to hearsay evidence is an incredible human travesty.
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