'Errors' and 'failures' led to departmental overspend, says PAC

Errors in estimates and a failure to properly monitor budgets led to two Northern Ireland departments overspending by around £4.5 million, according to a report published today by the Commons Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

The PAC report found that in 2002-2003, two departments incurred "resource excesses" with a total value of £4.5 million, compared with £6.3 million incurred by three departments in 2001-02.

The agriculture department was responsible for £4.2 million and the trade department £328,000 of the overspend.

The committee concluded: "Although the number and value of Excesses in 2002-03 has fallen from the previous year this does not diminish the significance of the individual Excesses. We expect departments to plan and control their consumption of resources and their cash requirements within the limits authorised through the Budget Act."

The resource excesses could have been largely avoided, the report said, if the departments had "correctly operated the resource accounting and resource-based Supply procedures". Errors in the preparation of estimates and the failure to monitor and forecast properly financial performance during the year resulted in departments not identifying overspending against budgets, the report said.

The committee recommended that accounting officers should give the "highest priority to satisfying themselves that their departments can fulfil that responsibility".

Responding to the report, the enterprise department said that its £328,000 overspend was due to the need for "remedial work" at abandoned salt mines in Carrickfergus.

A department spokesperson said: "DETI can re-assure the public that we take a very responsible attitude to the use of public funds. In this case however, safety issues were paramount.”

However, the former finance minister, SDLP assembly member Sean Farren, has dismissed the report as "almost valueless".

He added: "It's a very short report of about 16 paragraphs from a committee with no Northern Irish member on it. It offers no evidence from the departments which it criticises and doesn't tell us in any detail which items were undervalued."

Unionist assembly member, and former Stormont PAC chairman, Billy Bell said that the findings highlighted the need for the "urgent reinstatement of the Northern Ireland Assembly with its scrutinising role".

The Lagan Valley MLA said that he "strongly disagreed" with Mr Farren, as the report's criticisms were "very focused and homed in on failure to operate asset accounting properly and failure to monitor in-year spending properly".

He added: “To dismiss House of Commons Public Accounts Committee findings in the way Sean Farren has is tantamount to saying the public must accept a less than perfect result from the public service. I don’t agree with that. We spend enough on the public services and should expect that they would not make straightforward mistakes like this."

Last week the Department of Social Development was slated over a loss of £53 million.

(gmcg)