Mr. Lar Bradshaw:

The authority was vulnerable because in hindsight it transpired that we had made a decision which lost the authority a significant amount of money, which is a true statement. So it was vulnerable and it had been politicised and the Comptroller and Auditor General went in to do a report and the problem with the one sentence which is in it versus the three sentences which should be in there is that it creates the impression - it is why the Deputy is pressing this the way he is, which I fully accept - that there was some attempt on the part of at least the executive, if not the authority, to conceal some information from the Department of the Environment. That, unfortunately, is an incorrect conclusion to draw from this. If the three sentences were in there, we would have a much more complete picture in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report and I think this committee might have gone off on a slightly different tack in understanding the probity. The only issue which matters here - there are other issues, which we will get on to - is the probity and integrity of the authority.