Ulster Unionist Leader Mike Nesbitt has asked why OFMdFM have requested what is effectively a £20m overdraft to meet an ‘urgent cash requirement for existing services.’
Mr Nesbitt said:
“I was intrigued to receive notification from the Finance Minister that he has approved a request from OFMdFM for an advance of £20 million from the Northern Ireland consolidated fund, under legislation “to meet a further urgent cash requirement for existing services when provision for the total net cash requirement is exhausted.’
“Many people will be asking what exactly they need the money for? This is after all the same OFMdFM which has proved itself incapable of spending £80m to alleviate poverty via the Social Investment Fund, which was unable to spend the millions it had allocated to childcare and which failed miserably to redevelop the Maze site.
“OFMdFM is the last department in this dysfunctional Executive which should be asking for more money. I sincerely hope that it is just a coincidence that they are asking for what is effectively a £20m overdraft as we approach an Assembly Election. In the absence of an explanation, people will inevitably draw their own conclusions.”