The latest failure of Stormont – the waste of £140m
22 December 2010
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister:-
“Strict fiscal management is always important, but even more so when every penny counts. So the revelation that in the past financial year the Stormont Executive made irregular payments totalling £140m is shocking. Across government – with Health & Social Care figures still to come – we’ve seen squander and waste.
“Even the department with oversight, DFP, has itself lost us £25m over its unsatisfactory accounting on two EU programmes.
“These figures amount to an indictment of local fiscal management and yet another failure by Stormont. The First Minister and others preen themselves about getting a pseudo budget (unable, of course, to say anything about the key budget component of departmental expenditure), yet preside over the mismanagement and loss of £140m, including £56m overpayment of Housing Benefit.
“Even at the level of handling our money this is an Executive showing itself unfit for purpose. Of course, without even a facility for an Opposition in the Assembly they can carry on unchallenged to the next ‘success’ of this failed Stormont.”
