Bill McKendry, spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Conservatives, has said that the Public Accounts Committee’s (PAC) report into the Farm Nutrient Management Scheme has blown wide open “a culture of secrecy, shoddy practices and complacency” presided over by the Executive, and in particular Sinn Féin ministers at the Department of Agriculture. He also called upon former DARD minister, Michelle Gildernew, to explain her role in a scandalous property overvaluation.
“This report describes not only the serial maladministration of the Management Scheme, which has cost the tax-payer tens of millions of pounds, but some seriously dodgy accounting, with the Northern Ireland Plant Testing Station at Crossnacreevy overvalued by some £190 million, apparently in a desperate attempt to make the books balance”.
“The department used this outrageous valuation to secure an additional £89 million from the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP), which in turn completely neglected to insist on a proper professional valuation on the property before providing the money. The PAC then found DARD’s response to its investigation into the incident slow and evasive and its answers to straightforward questions implausible.”
“Clearly senior civil servants have cause for self-examination, particularly after a previous report into Northern Ireland Water found a similar reluctance to provide clear and open answers. But let us not forget who ultimately presides over this culture of incompetency, secrecy, complacency and a complete lack of accountability in Executive departments.”
“The former DARD minister, Michelle Gildernew, needs to clarify whether she knew about the undervaluation, before she attended an executive meeting in September 2007 where the extra £89 million was released. If she wasn’t informed, then she clearly wasn’t on top of her brief. If she was informed, then why on earth did she continue to use the overvaluation to lever money out of DFP?”
“For his part, the Finance Minister, Sammy Wilson, must explain why his department failed to properly oversee this transaction. He previously implied the Crossnacreevy sale was an ingenious approach to revenue raising! What a spectacular misjudgement! And Michelle O’Neill, the current Agriculture Minister, is accountable for the evasion which her department seemed to continue to engage in, during the PAC’s investigation.”
“Ministers can’t wriggle of the hook forever, constantly finding someone else to scapegoat for the scandals which arise in their departments, on their watch. This PAC report raises questions of the utmost seriousness and it uses language which will be startling to everyone in Northern Ireland: it calls the Crossnacreevy incident “astonishing”.”
“This report cannot simply be swept under the carpet, nor can the buck stop with civil servants. The ministers responsible need to provide convincing explanations, fast, or they should do the decent thing and resign. The people of Northern Ireland deserve better than this secretive mess.”