Army base take overwent against advice

The revelation was made during a briefing of the Stormont Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Wednesday at which one local MLA complained that there was “no vision” and “no masterplan” for Shackleton.

SDLP MLA John Dallat also warned that Ballykelly could not be allowed to become an “albatross” around taxpayers’ necks.

Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) Accounting Officer, Noel Lavery, told the Committee he didn’t want to take on the site due to the potential decontamination costs of the former military site, the current market value and the ongoing running costs.

It emerged that the decision to take the former Barracks into OFMDFM ownership last year was taken at Ministerial level and was opposed by the Department’s expert accountant.

Committee members were advised that there were concerns that the value of bids for the site arising from the MoD’s sales process were much lower than expected.

This led to Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness suing for the site to be taken over by OFMDFM.

But it was revealed last week that this was contrary to the Department’s top Accounting Officer’s advice.

Mr Lavery took professional advice on the valuation of the land, potential remediation costs and taking into account the holding costs associated with owning the site and was unable to support taking the site into OFMDFM ownership on value for money grounds.

In order for the move to proceed the Department had to seek specific ministerial direction. The Shackleton transfer was the only former military site in Northern Ireland were this happened.

Mr Lavery told the Committee: “In this particular instance my concern was that there was an MoD sales process which gave a market value. It took Land and Property Service (LPS) and Asset Management Unit (AMU) advice.

“The MoD put a timescale on it and looking at the offer that was on the table, the potential decontamination costs and the ongoing running costs, those were the issues that were of concern. My advice recognised the market uncertainties at the time. I think it’s quite an unusal one in terms of taking on a site.”

During the course of the evidence session Mr Dallat said he wanted to ensure Ballykelly doesn’t become another “albatross.”

He commented: “We’ll be watching very carefully that the lessons from these sites are learned and the criticism that’s already flowing in the newspapers is eventually not justified and that Ballkelly doesn’t became another albatross.”

“This term gifted, you know, doesn’t really convey the term. Perhaps this was all part of the Hillsborough Agreement. Was there any discussion on the MoD making a contribution towards the mess that was left over the last 100 years?” he asked.

Mr Lavery said top officials and Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness held talks with the MoD but the final deal was that OFMDFM take the site replete with whatever heavy metals and other contaminants were extant.

He said: “I know there was discussion at official and ministerial level on this. The final agreement was that the sites were gifted as is.

Mr Dallat suggested that: MoD got a quare deal” to which Mr Lavery responded: “Again as we said future value will tell the story.”