Departmental move is turning in an administrative nightmare, says Ford

Mr Ford this week quizzed the Permanent Secretary of the Department during the first committee session of the new Assembly term.

The MLA said that the civil servant revealed as there will be no compulsory moves for staff, there will be a potential loss of corporate knowledge to compound the issue. This follows the new Department losing 18 per cent of its staff through the voluntary exit scheme over the last two years, including people in key leadership positions.

“Alliance has criticised the logic of this move from the start,” said Mr Ford.

“The Sinn Fein Minister who started the ball rolling on this move had no business case with any validity in the first place, but continued to push ahead with it despite all advice to the contrary. For whatever reason, DUP Ministers are now supporting a move which will cost a very large sum at a time when budgets are under pressure.

“In the next few weeks, we will hear about limited funds for agriculture support, rural development and environmental protection. The reduction in such worthwhile expenditure is a direct result of the politically motivated decision to move an entire Department without a proper business case.

“While we are not opposed to the decentralisation of jobs, at a time when the public purse strings are being tightened across the board, the cost of this move should be redirected to frontline services and not spent on a long, expensive and frankly ridiculous personal crusade,” added Mr Ford.