Unapproved spending by Ilex and WELB reported to Stormont

Irregular expenditure by the Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister (OFMDFM) on the Ebrington Barracks site has also been flagged by the audit office.

During 2009/10 and 2010/11, WELB - collectively with the four other education authorities - paid out £1.1m to staff for services that were legally free.

The five education boards also increased pay for non-teaching staff by £2.8m in 2010/11 without the approval of either the Department of Education (DE) or the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP).

Elsewhere, during 2010-11, Ilex incurred expenditure of £0.4 million on a number of projects where it did not obtain the necessary approvals from its sponsor departments - OFMDFM and the Department for Social Development (DSD) - or DFP.

And in 2011/12 OFMDFM spent £4.6 million on the Ebrington Parade Ground Project where there was a change in the scope of the project which did not receive DFP approval.

Kieran Donnelly, the Comptroller and Auditor General for Northern Ireland and Head of the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO), reported the results of financial audit work undertaken primarily on the 2011-12 accounts of government departments and other public sector bodies.

Mr Donnelly said: “The standards of financial reporting continue to remain high, demonstrated by the quality and timeliness of financial reporting.

“However, in the past two years he has seen an increasing failure to comply with instructions from governing authorities, including failure to obtain DFP expenditure approvals.

“In particular, a number of audited bodies have taken decisions to award salary increases without the appropriate approvals from DFP or their sponsoring department.”