WHAT IS DFP HIDING?
24 September 2008
Statement by Traditional Unionist Leader Jim Allister MEP
"Away back on 27 May 2008 I wrote to the DFP Minister (then Peter Robinson MP) asking :-
' how many business cases you have approved in respect of the various cross-border bodies, since coming to office?
In respect of each could you kindly advise me of the following:-
The date when each such case was presented, the date approved, the amount sought, the amount approved and what percentage increase/decrease the amount approved represented in terms of previous approved expenditure.'
Despite multiple reminders to the current Minister, Nigel Dodds MP, there has been a deafening silence, even though it has been confirmed to me that the Minister has had the information and draft reply from his civil servants for weeks. The Minister is sitting on the reply. Why? What has he got to hide? Could it be that, despite all the bluster and promise about reining in the north-south bodies and holding them to account, the DUP Ministers have in fact merely rubber-stamped their budgetary demands and allowed same to increase.
Only when the Minister stops hiding the information will we know, but its time he came clean."
