President of Tynwald to be asked for permission to include COMIN?s MEA report on Supplementary Order Paper for July Tynwald

The Council of Ministers is hoping that permission will be granted, by the President of Tynwald, Noel Cringle, for their report, on the Manx Electricity Authority loan 'scandal', to be placed before the July sitting of Tynwald.

It was revealed, on Monday, that the Current Board of the MEA had accepted that loans, in addition to the Tynwald approved £185m bond, had been illegally obtained.

This admission has apparently paved the way for COMIN to come back to Tynwald to seek retrospective approval of the £120m that the MEA borrowed, through one of their subsidiary companies, without Treasury consent.

If Tynwald approves the motion then it will clear the Auditors to sign off the MEA's accounts for 2003/4 and 2004/5.

Chief Minister Tony Brown has described the proposal as a "pragmatic way forward" and is hoping that considerable legal costs can be avoided.

However, payments and expenses claims of another MEA subsidiary, Skyward Ltd, will still be investigated.

The dropping of the legal action should allow the Tynwald Select Committee, under the Chairmanship of Speaker of the House of Keys, Steve Rodan, to continue its investigations into how the situation was allowed to happen.

From preliminary research, undertaken by the Manx Herald, the MEA's 2003 Annual Report show borrowings greater than £185m yet Tynwald, who had the Report laid before them, paid little interest in the figures.

Reading through Hansard debates, it is clear that Tynwald set the MEA on a course of action that was undoubtedly going to cost the taxpayer an awful lot of money.