22 April, 2021 01:00 A Stormont department took part in a "clandestine" process with one of the firms bidding for multi-million pound deals to resurface Northern Ireland's roads, the Court of Appeal has ruled. Senior judges upheld findings that the tendering competition breached the principle of transparency and resulted in a manifest error. Lord Justice McCloskey said that giving top ranking to an operator for more contracts than it had the resources to carry out "defies common sense and commercial reality". The assessment came as he dismissed an appeal by the Department for Infrastructure. Rival civil engineering company Northstone (NI) Ltd is suing over the handling of a tendering competition for public road resurfacing.