Surge in NIHEinspection fails

According to the new report the post-inspection failure rate for the Waterloo Place district was 22.6 per cent in 2010/11 and 25.2 per cent in 2011/12.

At Collon Terrace the failure rate was 16.6 per cent in 2010/11 and 12.2 per cent in 2011/12; and in Waterside it was 10.6 per cent in 2010/11 and 16.3 per cent in 2011/12.

The failures related to poor workmanship and quality and were uncovered following an NIHE review of the performance of 16 contractors across the whole of Northern Ireland over the period April 2011 to March 2012.

According to the province-wide review one in five inspections recorded a failure; for 13 contractors, the fail rate was greater than NIHE’s target of 10 percent ranging from 14.8 percent to 32.0 percent; and this contrasts with overall rates of two percent to five percent in the period 2006-07 to 2009-10.

The NIAO report states: “We asked NIHE for an explanation of the recent upsurge in failed post-inspections. It told us that, prior to the review of the effectiveness of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) by Internal Audit in 2010, post-inspection failures recorded by district maintenance staff only related to poor workmanship and poor quality; failures due to accuracy of contractor invoices were not recorded as these had not been used as a measure of contractor performance.

“NIHE also told us that where errors were found in contractors’ invoices (overclaims), these were adjusted by district maintenance staff prior to payment and the errors were not recorded on the NIHE repairs system.”

The audit office report says the body is concerned not all failures are being recorded by the NIHE.

“This is a significant omission in light of the high level of errors and failures now being recorded. In addition, we are concerned that not all instances of poor

quality workmanship were being recorded by districts.

“For example, in one district in 2009-10 only four post-inspection failures were recorded in 2,300 jobs inspected by district maintenance staff; in contrast,

NIHE’s Repairs Inspection Unit found quality failings in seven jobs in a sample of 75 jobs,” the report states.