Now Dundee City Council has agreed an inquiry into the Olympia problems, I reckon there are things that might reasonably be expected.
I’m trying to be fair by sticking my head above the parapet and stating in advance: “this is what should happen”, instead of being wise after the event.
Perhaps councillors could similarly pop up their heads and state what they think the inquiry should uncover?
I have 10 expectations:
1. Duration: the Construction of Edinburgh Schools inquiry was triggered by the collapse of a wall at Oxgangs Primary School in January 2016.
That report was delivered by February 2017, and encompassed 17 schools. Make this inquiry similarly quick.
2. Chairperson: a robust, truly independent seeker of truth. Not a shill to get anyone off the hook.
3. Cronyism: no matter where blame lies, it must be uncovered.
No individual is protected, no one is immune, no one conveniently forgets anything.
4. Scope: everything!
We don’t want a “lessons learned” exercise, we want an examination of all aspects of selection of site, planning, the build, standard of materials, operation, and maintenance.
5. Openness: the investigators see everything.
They examine all records in unredacted form, and can compel anyone to speak. And the end product is presented in terms everyone can understand, no meanings hidden behind jargon.
6. Calendar limitations: zero.
This inquiry analyses everything, from first suggestion of the old leisure centre being demolished to the latest Olympia reopening. We need firm dates when things went wrong.
True cost to Dundee taxpayers must be revealed
7. Transparency: Dundee citizens are paying for this. They have the right to expect all stages to be revealed or reported in the papers.
And full fiscal transparency – the true cost to Dundee taxpayers – should be found. Not just repair bills but all consequent losses of revenue across the city; and costs or compensation paid to Dundee Leisure & Culture that wouldn’t have been made if the Olympia hadn’t been closed.
8. The future: has the building’s lifespan been affected by design, construction, materials used, or lack of maintenance? And can we expect the Olympia to henceforth be incident-free and only closed for scheduled maintenance days?
9. Responsibility: as part of the investigation, councillors should be asked why they didn’t raise concerns they have now admitted having. This can never be allowed to happen again.
I was disgusted by revelations last week that some asked questions “within their group”.
All politicians know a matter raised in the public arena is a vastly different thing to grumbles among cronies behind closed doors.
Olympia inquiry must have consequences
How much more swimming might Dundee kids have enjoyed if councillors had shown backbone and spoken up?
How much taxpayers’ money would have been saved if they’d had the courage to air their questions earlier?
Opposition councillors asked questions and were ignored. What has Dundee lost thanks to petty cross-party politicking?
10. Consequences: a power of the inquiry should be to recommend still serving councillors, and/or council officers, resign if shown to have not done their jobs properly.
And if anything criminal happened, the full force of the law is applied.
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