Quango's £4m in excess cash
AS cuts hit across the public sector, one north-south quango has £4 million of spare cash stashed in a bank account while another has not filed accounts since 2004, a report has found.
The assembly's Public Accounts Committee report into north-south bodies found a series of problems with the bodies and urged two DUP-led departments to take action.
Chronic delays in filing accounts, potential conflicts of interest, excessive use of consultants and a lack of transparency were all criticised by the Stormont committee as it examined the work of the cross-border bodies set up under the Good Friday Agreement.
In one instance, that of InterTradeIreland, the committee discovered that the north-south development quango had increased its bank balance by 1.5 million to 4 million in 2006.
The report said: "The committee reiterates the longstanding principle of public finance that public bodies should not hold levels of cash in excess of their immediate needs.
"This applies as much to north-south bodies as to other bodies. Public money should not be allowed to sit in bank accounts, unused, when so many other funding pressures exist throughout the public sector."
The committee called on the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment to ensure the quango reduced its excess cash reserves.
MLAs also found that The Language Body has not filed accounts since 2004. It urged the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) to pursue the body for the accounts.
The committee also criticised the limited information made available by north-south bodies on senior executives' pay, again calling on DFP to take action.
TUV leader Jim Allister said: "The unavoidable swingeing cuts which must hit the Northern Ireland public service and economy can be made most bearable by picking out the least necessary expenditure. 100m could be saved at a stroke by axing the useless, non-productive cross-border bodies, which, frankly, have produced nothing for anybody in 10 years."
The Public Accounts Committee's Sinn Fein chairman, Paul Maskey, said that its evidence-gathering sessions with the north-south bodies had been "informative" and "a useful first contact".
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Monday 28 May 2012
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