NI Water investigation: Forensic accountants' work underway with final report due next month

Liz Kimmins’s department has appointed PricewaterhouseCoopers to the role – and their interim findings are expected to be delivered to officials later this month.

The Sinn Fein minister made the shock announcement to the assembly in March, after the public body threatened to spend more money than it had been allocated – unless it received more cash.

Ms Kimmins said that despite a current allocation of just over £152million, the board of NI Water “has indicated in writing that it is minded to instruct NI Water to overspend unless additional budget is available”.

The overspend was expected to be in the region of £3m. The Sinn Fein minister said that she fully understood the “budgetary management decisions that NI Water has taken this year that have led to the board of NI Water proposing this unprecedented and disappointing course of action”.

But she said engaging forensic accountants was “a necessary step” which would help her department “work in partnership together with NI Water and enable better planning going forward in these times of constrained budgets”.

Asked about the move at the time, an NI Water spokesperson said it “will be working with DfI in line with minister’s instructions”.

The DUP welcomed the infrastructure minister’s decision, saying there are serious questions over the body’s financial management.

However, Deborah Erskine MLA also said there are “real concerns about the effectiveness of oversight” by Sinn Fein’s infrastructure ministers, and the public “deserves transparency and accountability”.

​A Department of Infrastructure spokesperson announced the latest developments in response to a query from the News Letter. They said: “PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has been appointed as the forensic accountant and the work has commenced.

“Interim findings are expected in late May with the final report due for completion in June.”