Inspectorate publishes report on threat verification project
11/03/2020
The inspection of a charity-run project that verifies threats made against individuals and families by paramilitary and other sources has found it to be operating with integrity to deliver clear humanitarian outcomes.
Chief Inspector Jacqui Durkin said Inspectors found the overall working of the Base 2 project to be sound and that information obtained to establish whether a threat is real was passed to Housing Executive decision makers to help determine re-housing priorities.
Ms Durkin said that Base 2 staff had developed a network of community contacts over many years and, while no evidence had been found that staff working for the project were doing so for the benefit of particular individuals or groups, the risk that the threat verification process could be misused could not be completely removed.
“It is our view that allegations of widespread misuse of the scheme were unfounded and that a systematic abuse of the public housing system was unlikely,” she said.
The Base 2 project is managed by the Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders. The inspection report has made two recommendations for improvement.