Two directorships in Northern Ireland's new economic umbrella agency, which command salaries of up to £95,000 sterling (€152,000), were not publicly advertised despite Equality Commission guidelines that all new posts should be advertised as widely as possible.
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment has confirmed that the posts of director of business international and director of corporate services for Invest Northern Ireland were not advertised before appointments being made to them earlier this month.
Mr Leslie Ross, the current acting chief executive of the Industrial Development Board (IDB) will fill the business international post while Mr Chris Buckland, currently chief executive of LEDU, the Small Business Agency, has been appointed director of corporate services.
Both the Industrial Development Board and LEDU will become part of the new economic development agency, which will come into existence early next year.
The new body will bring the five existing economic agencies in the North under one roof and it will have a staff of more than 600 people and a budget of more than £200 million sterling.
The Department of Enterprise said both Mr Ross and Mr Buckland were legally entitled to the new directorships because of their current positions with IDB and LEDU.
"Existing staff of all ranks have a right in law to a job in the new organisation. When work transfers from one employer to another the rights of staff at all levels are in most cases protected by the Transfer of Undertakings and Protection of Employment Regulations," a spokeswoman for the department said.
The department has said that advertisements for the two remaining posts - director of innovation and capability development and director of entrepreneurship and small to medium-sized enterprises support - would appear during the first half of December.
Senior business sources in the North, however, have expressed surprise that all four directorships were not publicly advertised.
Under guidelines set down by the Equality Commission, the independent public body established to promote equality of opportunity and encourage good practice, all new positions in Northern Ireland should be advertised and trawled as extensively as possible.
Mr Bill Jeffrey, vice-chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses in the North, said it believed all four posts should have been advertised publicly.
"The position of chief executive of Invest Northern Ireland was advertised prior to his appointment as were the positions for seven members of the shadow board and that of the shadow chairman of Invest Northern Ireland. We believe that the directors' posts should have been advertised in a similar manner.
"When jobs are just given out like this it adds to our concerns about the general make up of the shadow board and how representative this body will be of the business environment in Northern Ireland," Mr Jeffrey said.
But Mr Timothy Quin, president of the Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce said the organisation welcomed the appointment of Mr Buckland and Mr Ross to Invest Northern Ireland.
"We believe it is more important to ensure the right experience is in place to support the chief executive of Invest Northern Ireland rather than attending to every nicety of equality policy," Mr Quin said.
