£7 million - what a waste!
25 August 2005
The most recently published accounts for the office of the Police Ombudsman
for Northern Ireland raise serious questions in my mind as to whether or not
this office is value for money. The latest year for which figures are now
available is 2003/2004 and these show that for that year this office cost
the taxpayers of Northern Ireland £7million. When you consider the deficiencies in on-the-street policing and the cutbacks which there have been in police manpower, the spending of £7million on an Ombudsman’s office is highly questionable.
Within the published figures there are particular levels of expenditure
which give rise for concern. In addition to Mrs O’Loan’s generous salary of
£89,000 for that year it emerges that the Executive Director of
Investigations, Mr David Wood, in addition to his salary of over £110,000
was paid benefits in kind amounting to £32,600, thus making him a public
servant paid almost on a par with the Prime Minister. It is difficult to see
how such lavish expenses and salaries are in the public interest bearing in
mind that the Police Ombudsman’s office is not widely regarded as performing
much of a useful purpose in Northern Ireland.
