Major US investment in Northern Ireland's economy could be jeopardised if the crisis over the Human Rights Commission is not resolved, it has emerged.
In a dramatic intervention, the financial controllers of New York have called for the resignation of Chief Commissioner Brice Dickson and branded his crisis-hit organisation a "failed entity" that needs "complete reorganisation".
The Irish News has obtained a copy of a strongly worded letter sent to the British and Irish governments by City of New York Comptroller William Thompson and State of New York Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
The elected officials control investment funds worth more than $180 billion and their joint letter states that more than $15 billion of this is invested in corporations doing business in Northern Ireland.
The comptrollers do not threaten a withdrawal of investment but signal that it could be jeopardised by claims that the commission is undermining fair employment protections.
They point out that their offices "operate under statutory guidelines that mandate the promotion of fair employment practices" in Northern Ireland.
They also tell the governments that after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement they encouraged US companies to invest in Northern Ireland "with the understanding that progress would continue to be made toward equality and fairness for all".
"It is for that reason that we have been dismayed to learn that the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission, one of the main institutions set up by the Good Friday Agreement to help achieve that goal, is now being used to undermine key provisions of current fair employment legislation," the letter reads.
The commission is drafting a Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland but is accused of trying to force a shift away from the Catholic and Protestant categorisations central to existing equality safeguards.
Critics say this ignores the history of discrimination against Catholics and undermines fair employment laws that monitor religious balance in the workplace.
While the commission rejects these criticisms, three of its members have resigned over the issue and two more have withdrawn from its day-to-day work.
The comptrollers also describe Chief Commissioner Brice Dickson as having been "hopelessly compromised" overhis handling of a case linked to the 2001 loyalist protest at Holy Cross Girls School in north Belfast.
After the commission agreed to fund a parent's legal challenge of the policing of the protest, Mr Dickson wrote to the then chief constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, saying he did not believe the case had merit.
This episode and Mr Dickson's subsequent proposal that the commission drop the case have been described as a breach of trust.
