29 May 2009
By Paul Gosling
Northern Ireland’s Child Support Agency had a gross debt of £82.6m in 2007/08, the Northern Ireland Audit Office’s annual report has revealed. Of this, £35.7m was collectable, a rise from £29.9m the previous year.
The NIAO is concerned that the collectable figure is rising annually and that the agency, now part of the Department for Social Development, set itself insufficiently challenging collection targets.
The agency’s client fund accounts were qualified as the debt figures were not supported by adequate documentation. The accounts have been qualified every year since the agency was established in 1993.
John Dowdall, the comptroller and auditor general for Northern Ireland, said: ‘Despite the changes that have taken place already, controlling debt evidently continues to be a problem for the CSA.’
The agency was replaced by the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Division of the DfSD in March 2008.
Dowdall’s report, Financial auditing and reporting 2007/08, also expressed concern at the level of rates arrears, which rose from £88m at the end of 2006/07 to £124m at March 2008. The failure to collect more arrears, and delays in sending out rates bills on vacant properties, was increasing the financial burden on public bodies and on taxpayers, he said.
Other criticisms in Dowdall’s report included delayed bill-paying by education bodies; the slow rate of inspections of housing associations; and procurement weaknesses across a range of government departments.
