22 December 2010
Seven out of seventeen Northern Ireland Government departments have had their finances qualified this year, with millions of pounds of public money not properly accounted for.
Results of the cross-government audit for 2009/10 were published this morning by Kieran Donnelly, comptroller and auditor general for Northern Ireland.
Procurement was highlighted as a cause for concern, with three departments’ accounts qualified due to irregularities in that area.
Donnelly found that the Department for Social Development lost an estimated £56.1m in benefit overpayments, while a further £19.5m was believed to have been underpaid to legitimate claimants.
Meanwhile the Department for Agriculture and Rural Development incurred irregular expenditure of £23.2m in cash terms due to clerical errors, and £14.1m in resource terms because of ‘timing considerations’.
Elsewhere, the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure did not obtain necessary approval on a £1.7m spend on the Grand Opera House in Belfast. The Department for Education was singled out for spending £2.1m on consultants without complying with necessary regulations on managing public money.
In 2005-06 just one department had its accounts qualified. Since then the number has been steadily rising.
Donnelly said: ‘Although the standard of financial reporting across central government remains high, 2009-10 was a year when a larger number of accounts than usual received qualifications.’
The audit does not include the health and social care sector. A separate report on that subject is due to be published in early 2011.
