A safeguarding watchdog has confirmed it is not auditing the Presbyterian Church in Ireland - apparently contradicting claims from church leaders.
The church announced last week that moderator Rev Trevor Gribben was standing down after it found “serious and significant failings” in safeguarding from 2009 to 2022.
Church leaders have since said they have signed up to an "external" review by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (SBNI) – an interagency partnership including all statutory bodies responsible for safeguarding in NI.
However SBNI has told the News Letter it “is not auditing” PCI - but that the church is using its publicly available template to carry out a “self-audit”.
Last week Church Convenor Rev David Bruce appeared to say the church had asked SBNI “external to us” to review its safeguarding.
BBC presenter William Crawley asked him: "You could have an external body who does a full investigation into the fitness for the purpose of safeguarding in the Presbyterian church right now. Why not sign up to that?"
Rev David Bruce replied: "Already done. It's the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland who, external to us, have an audit process in place. We have signed up to that audit. It has begun, and when it is completed it will be launched with the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland."
On Sunday a statement claiming that “an external audit is already under way” was read out in every congregation.
In the statement, Acting Clerk of the Presbyterian General Assembly Rev David Allen said: "We will not sweep this under the carpet, we will open ourselves to external review, and will cooperate fully.
"An external audit is already under way, designed by the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland, called Section 12.
"This audit will review our practices and processes, and will be submitted to the Safeguarding Board."
However the watchdog has told the News Letter: “The SBNI is not auditing the PCI child and vulnerable adults protection systems".
SBNI said it monitors all of its members in part through a mandatory safeguarding audit based on nine key standards.
However it added that PCI "is not a member agency of the SBNI" though any organisation can use the audit template.
But it warned: "The audit framework is not a substitute for an external independent review of safeguarding practice.”
SBNI said it was aware that PCI is "undertaking a self audit" using the template, which are normally returned to SBNI for evaluation.
Asked why it did not pick up on the collapse of PCI safeguarding dating back to 2009, SBNI replied that PCI "is not, and has never been a member of SBNI therefore they have never completed a self audit using the SBNI framework tool".
Current members of SBNI include organisations such as Barnardos, NSPCC, Voypic and the Catholic Diocese Down and Connor.
The News Letter asked PCI why it said it has signed up to an external audit when it is actually conducting a self-audit?
And if it would now adopt an audit by an independent professional team?
However, PCI declined to answer questions.
A spokesman replied: ““Since a criminal investigation has been announced by the PSNI, which the Church has welcomed and will cooperate fully with, we are unable to comment on any aspect that may be part of their investigation.”