|
8.5 Million Reasons Not To
Have NI Water Rates
Northern Ireland Water's Consultants
Cost £8.5 Million
The Regional Development Minister for Northern Ireland Conor Murphy has revealed that Northern Ireland Water, a company with an absolute monopoly in Northern Ireland, has spent in excess of £8.5 million in
consultancy fees within the last financial year alone.
The Department for Regional Development which has governance over the publicly owned company, indicated that the fees related to management, technical and legal consultancy services.
Acting Chief Executive Officer Chris Mellors stated
'We're managing one of the largest capital programmes in Northern Ireland. This year alone we're investing £280m ... but you can't do all that and carry out the day job, supplying water and waste water services to three-quarters of a million households in
Northern Ireland", continuing "You just cannot carry out this kind of transformation project without some support and
help.'
Editorial
Yet again the Northern
Ireland Water Service have plunged millions into the
services of consultants. It is possible that consultants
may have been needed in year one of any 'capital
programme', but to most people if proper recruitment and
planning had taken place, there would be limited need
for their services in any subsequent year. It
is unacceptable, given the waste of the Water Service in
the past that they now appear to be saying they cannot
carry out their core function of providing a service to
the public whilst managing ongoing change, which lets
face it, is the very nature of their business. The
consultancy services they use cover management and
technical services, core functions of their business. In
addition they use legal services of outside consultants,
rather than in-house legal staff or civil service
lawyers. It
is about time the public in Northern Ireland conducted a
waste management programme of their own and demanded the
removal of executives within Northern Ireland Water who
appear to be acknowledging the job cannot be done
without employing other people. The choice is clear,
remove these executives and replace them with the people
'they' claim can do the job. Last Updated 28th October 2008
|
