Almost £92m of capital funding which could have been spent by the Northern Ireland Executive was handed back to the UK government over a five-year period.
The report, by Northern Ireland’s Comptroller and Auditor General, says that the absence of a functioning Executive meant that a number of issues identified in previous Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) and PAC reports in relation to budgeting and accountability have yet to be addressed.
It describes the £91.8m of returned money as a “significant amount of money which equates, for example, to the projected final cost of the new maternity hospital in the grounds of the Royal Victoria Hospital.”
The report finds that a total of £2.1bn was returned to the UK Treasury by the NI Executive, during the five-year period examined.
However, it says £2bn of this did not represent a loss of spending power for the executive as the amount returned related to non-cash funding which could not be used for any other purpose.
The review also finds there is a lack of transparency in relation to overall spending by the NI Executive.
The report recommends that the Northern Ireland Executive needs to ensure that where possible multi-year budgets are set to support long-term financial planning.
It also says there needs to be a clearer linkage between budgets set by the Northern Ireland Executive and measurable outcomes identified in the Programme for Government.
