Allister Fuming over Rural Development's £7.5m Administration Costs
08 March 2012
TUV Leader Jim Allister has expressed amazement at the scale of administrative spend in the allocation of Rural Development funding by the 7 Council clusters. In figures just released to the North Antrim MLA by DARD, in response to an Assembly Question, it emerges that while only £14m has been allocated across the Province, a staggering £7.5m has been spent on administration. In one case, Lagan Rural Development cluster (Lisburn, Castlereagh and Belfast councils), while only £872,000 has been spent on projects, almost as much, £689,000, has gone on administration.
Commenting Jim Allister said:-
“I had previously warned that the tiers of bureaucracy afflicting the Rural Development Programme would see millions wasted on bureaucracy, but I am amazed by these figures. To think that for every pound spent over 50p goes on administration is utterly unacceptable and points to a grossly mismanaged programme and a waste of scarce resources. This is a shambolic failure by DARD.
“On top of this we find that whereas £100m was allocated to the RDP by this the penultimate year of the 7 year programme only £14m has gone to projects. 80% of the funding remains unspent and at this rate much of it will never reach its targets.
“Coming on the back of the scandal of DARD declaring the republican monument in Crossmaglen as eligible for RDP funding, these figures further rock public confidence in DARD and the LAG’s capacity to properly administer these funds. Some one needs to take this issue by the scruff of the neck and sort it out, but frankly I doubt if the present minister will ever do so.”
