Communities Scotland

Did Napier University lie to EdinburghSucks.com?

By The Basa ⋅ April 6, 2006 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

No sooner than we published our post on yet another of disgraced ex-councillor Paul Nolan’s conflicts of interest, where we included a quote we were given from Napier University, our email box was deluged from those in-the-know both within Napier and without.

Indeed we believe we were lied to by Napier University when the supplied us with the following quote:

A spokesperson for Napier University said: “Napier University works closely with the Craigmillar community on a number of projects in the area to provide education and training for local people. However, responsibility for the appointment of staff remains with local organisations and any queries should be addressed directly to them.”

In actual fact, whilst our busy reporters were digging into the story of the conflict of interest of Sir Paul Nolan the Barren of Craigmillar and thinking that the University was being honestly dragged into the conflict fiasco, we now find out from our sources at the University, that they had in fact for most of this week been trying to make sure that it looked as though all their procedures for the upcoming job announcement were being met because of the negative publicity they knew would ensue.  In fact the words being used around Napier were “crossing the t’s and dotting the i’s” which of course is wonky english for “taking part in the cover-up of a conflict of interest”.

So we have sent the following further questions to Napier for answers and will obviously keep our readers informed:

1. Was a member of Napier’s staff on the interviewing panel for the position and what was his name and qualifications?
2. Why was Napier University spending so much time, money and resources trying to make sure that the appointment at Haywired passed through all their procedures if the person who got the job was eminently qualified for the job?
3. Why did you supply the abovementioned quote which is at worst a lie and at best a distortion of the facts, when you know full well that indeed Bill Drew (whoops…. we’ve answered the first half of the first question) was on the interviewing panel and “responsibility for the appointment of staff remains with local organisations” was in fact a lie and not only was the appointment approved a member of your staff, on your University’s time but you have wasted inordinate amounts of resources to take part in what is without doubt a conflict of interest?
4. When you say you work closely with the Craigmillar community, can you please define what you mean by the “community”, how many people do you actually WORK WITH?

We will also be drafting questions together with our advisors to put to the Education Minister in Parliament in relation to this appointment and Napier University’s involvement in it.

Random Posts you may have missed

• September 29, 2005 -- 1 in 9 ‘living in poverty’
• April 19, 2005 -- England could learn from Scotland’s failures.
• February 22, 2006 -- Contact your MP – Will they reply?
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• May 28, 2007 -- The Lesley Hinds World Tour 2006/7

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