NI Conservatives’ finance spokesman, Harry Cullen, has congratulated Simon Hamilton on his new role as Finance Minister in the Stormont Executive, but remarked that the DUP man must “do a much better job when it comes to clamping down on waste, than his predecessor, Sammy Wilson”.
“I congratulate Mr Hamilton on his new role”, Harry said. “However he has a tough time ahead, as he is taking over a department which has presided over a culture of waste, under his party colleague, Sammy Wilson. Report after report from the audit commission has exposed overspending across the executive departments. For instance, the Housing Executive’s recent £18 million overspend, flawed practices in Northern Ireland Water, £140 million squandered because the executive does not use the best methods to procure goods or services and a litany of other examples.”
“Sammy Wilson even became the ‘waste of space minister’ by allowing civil servants to throw away an estimated £17 million on using unnecessary office space. The executive and in particular, the finance minister, has not offered the people of Northern Ireland anything resembling value for money. Indeed it has wasted tens of millions of pounds which could have been used to upgrade hospitals, build school buildings and improve public services.”
“We’ll be watching with interest to see whether Simon Hamilton can turn around his party’s failure in this area and take responsibility for stamping out the culture of waste, across the executive. The money which is squandered is taken from the taxes of people across Northern Ireland and it is stopping them from having the services which they deserve. We wish Mr Hamilton all the best, but he will need to take a completely different approach to Sammy Wilson, if he is to succeed.”