Ilex car park will mar Ofmdfm books

The car park was part of the overall £20.7m Ebrington project - elements of which were classified by the auditors due to changes on the original contract.

This means that once tenders for the 220 space underground car park are awarded and money is eventually spent on the scheme, the expenditure will once again be deemed irregular, resulting in a further qualification of OFMDFM’s accounts.

Top civl servant Noel Lavery recently said that spending controls had been tightened by ILEX since unapproved expenditure on a number of projects including elements of the Ebrington Barracks development were disclosed last autumn.

Mr Lavery, Accounting Officer at OFMDFM, said he and his counterpart at the Department of Social Development (DSD), now hold monthly accountability meetings with the company to “consider progress against an agreed action plan.”

Both DSD and OFMDFM officials have been shadowing ILEX to ensure procedural propriety since learning last November of unapproved expenditure on a number of projects dating back to 2008.

Now ILEX has confirmed to the Sentinel that the car park scheme will result in a qualification of OFMDFM’s accounts in whatever year it goes ahead.

Director of Finance and Corporate Governance at the regeneration company Mel Higgins told a board meeting in May that progressing the car park would not qualify ILEX accounts but it would qualify OFMDFM’s accounts as the project was deemed irregular due to its linkages with the Parade Ground.

He said ILEX was awaiting completion costs from consultants to assess value for money (VFM) on the project.

Effectively, OFMDFM will be marked down for the spending sins of yesteryear because “once a project is deemed to be irregular, the irregular expenditure carries through until the project has finished,” as Mr Lavery explained to the OFMDFM Committee earlier this year.

“If there is an issue in 2011 and there is still expenditure in 2012, you are qualified in 2012; there is nothing that you can do to rectify that now,” he said, in a briefing on OFMDFM governance issues, including those which related to ILEX.

Now ILEX has confirmed this to be the case. A spokesperson explained: “The original business case for the Parade Ground, included an element for a car park and associated works at Ebrington. This case was approved by the Department for Finance and Personnel at a total cost of £20.7m.

“However as the Parade Ground element of this project has been classified as irregular due to changes on the original contract, the expenditure on the subsequent car park project will also be deemed irregular in OFMDFM’s accounts.”

The spokesperson said OFMDFM will hold Ilex accountable for the delivery of the car park project but that no capital expenditure on the scheme will be recorded in ILEX’s accounts.

Instead, it will “all be paid for and accounted for by OFMDFM because ownership of Ebrington rests with OFMDFM.”

The spokesperson also confirmed there has been considerable slippage on the car park project, whihc hte public were at one stage told was due to get underway in January with a provisional opening date of December 2012.

At this stage the contract for the job has not yet been appointed.

“The car park contract has been issued to tender and tenders are currently being assessed. On receipt of a final tender report a Value For Money assessment will be made to identify the necessary course of action,” the spokesperson said.

In July Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) MLA Danny Kinahan told the OFMDFM Committee that: “When you read about Ebrington barracks, it says that the Department spent more than £4 million when it was supposed to spend only £3 million.”

He asked: “What is in place to stop the Department just spending again and you only hearing about it later?”

Mr Lavery replied: “ILEX manages that contract on our behalf, so it gets the expenditure certificated, and we get documentation before we make the payment.

“However, a commitment was made without departmental approval. The Department’s accounts are qualified because it makes the payment. The money goes through our books, so our accounts are qualified.”