Gildernew's oversight of Rural Development Programme a disaster
10 November 2010
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister:-
“A year ago I warned and complained about excessive delay by DARD in rolling out the 2007-13 Rural Development Programme, though it was approved in
(http://www.jimallister.org/default.asp?blogID=1770) Then, under Axis 3, a mere £1.5m had been paid out, now, a year later, only another £1m has found its way to applicants, yet £3m has been spent on administration!
The targets within the approved programme are not being met, but more significantly those who need the money are not getting it. Bureaucracy has become more important, and expensive, than delivery. This is a colossal failure by DARD. Despite all the tell-tale signs of indolence and delay the Minister has lamentably failed to take this issue by the scruff of the neck and get the money out where it is needed.
When Gildernew came to office she switched an additional £15m into Axis 3, money which now she can’t spend and which could and ought to have been used to reduce the rate of voluntary modulation to
I have long argued that the Minister’s bias towards Axis 3, with only £45m going into the far more useful Axis 1, was a gross misjudgement. Now we find mismanagement added to the mix and money becalmed and wasted in the labyrinth of bureaucracy created through LAGs and oversight committees.
Elsewhere in Europe other Member States apportioned over a third of their respective Rural Development budgets into Axis 1 Increasing Competitiveness priorities, but, here, Minister Gildernew in her folly gave only 8% of the total Rurual Development Programme budget to Axis 1. With Axis 3 now languishing in underspend and huge delay we are seeing money that could have been put to good use wasted.
Let it not be forgotten that a third of the funding of the Rural Development Programme is coming from farmers themselves, through a hefty ‘voluntary’ modulation levy on Single Farm Payments. So, it is very frustrating for the farming community to see money they were required to contribute wasted on and stranded within DARD’s bureaucracy.”
