Ilex spent £400k irregularly

Northern Ireland Audtor General Kieran Donnelly issued a qualified opinion on the accounts as the necessary approvals were not sought from the Departments of Social Development (DSD), Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) and Finance (DFP) in advance of committing funds on several projects.

The audit report identified six projects where irregular spending amounting to £404K took place.

SDLP MLA Colum Eastwood asked for ILEX and OFMDFM “to provide full clarity on these payments in the interests of public confidence and accountability.”

Sinn Féin councillor Maeve McLaughlin also said it was “imperative that the Board now provide assurance that appropriate steps have been taken to ensure that there is no repeat of these failures.”

ILEX confirmed that as “a publically funded body its accounts are subject to external audit by the NIAO” and that “they have issued a qualified opinion on the accounts as the necessary approvals were not sought from departments in advance of committing funds on several projects.”

ILEX’s Interim Chairman Matt McNulty said: “With so many positive developments, it is disappointing that Ilex’s 2010-11 Accounts have been qualified. The Board of Ilex takes this matter very seriously.

“We have acted promptly to improve internal controls. We undertook an in-depth review of the regularity of all expenditure and of the reasons why approvals were not obtained in advance, as required by the Department of Finance and Personnel and our two sponsor departments.

“The Ilex Board has approved a comprehensive programme of action, putting in place the systems, protocols and procedures required to ensure full compliance with the required systems and procedures going forward. The Board looks forward to continuing to deliver a positive contribution to the City’s future.”

Irregular expenditure by public bodies in the North West is not unusual. Last summer DFP withdrew approval for the entire £8.9m in public money spent on the Waterloo Place/Guildhall Square regeneration scheme due to DSD’s overspend of £1.7m on the project.

The landmark public realm scheme was originally supposed to cost £7.2m but went well over budget due in part to “extremely difficult underground conditions” encountered during construction. The entire £8.9m final cost was deemed “irregular expenditure ” by DFP and the public auditors.

Equally, in early 2011 the Sentinel reported how two public private partnerships set up to progress three multi-million pound Catholic schools projects in Londonderry and Strabane were amongst 12 projects on which the Department of Education (DE) incurred irregular expenditure of £4.4m since 2004/5.

DE spent a combined £1,805,301 irregularly paying external consultancy costs for the Derry Diocese Public Private Partnership (PPP) and the Holy Cross College Strabane PPP.