Author : Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Audit Office
Release : 2006-02-09
Genre : Political Science
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Book Rating : 659/5 ( reviews)

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Governance Issues in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment's Former Local Enterprise Development Unit in Relation to the Establishment and Oversight of the Emerging Business Trust Loan and Venture Funds - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Governance Issues in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment's Former Local Enterprise Development Unit in Relation to the Establishment and Oversight of the Emerging Business Trust Loan and Venture Funds write by Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Audit Office. This book was released on 2006-02-09. Governance Issues in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment's Former Local Enterprise Development Unit in Relation to the Establishment and Oversight of the Emerging Business Trust Loan and Venture Funds available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. This report examines major weaknesses in the part played by the former Local Enterprise Development Unit (LEDU) in the establishment and oversight of the Emerging Business Trust (EBT). The ETB was created in 1996 with funds of £3 million provided by the International Fund for Ireland and £0.75 million by LEDU, mainly administering a loan fund. In 2000 EBT also established a venture fund, with a total funding of £0.6 million. EBT voluntarily ceased to carry on business in April 2005, and a liquidator was appointed to wind up the affairs of both the loan and venture funds. Invest Northern Ireland (a development agency which assumed the responsibilities of LEDU in 2002) carried out an investigation, which identified a long list of failings: conflicts of interest, especially involving a LEDU board member who was also a partner in MTF Chartered Accountants who were the managing agents of both funds; LEDU's failure to follow its own procedures; normal public sector rules on competitive tendering were not followed; a high level of bad debt (£1.1 million was written off); insufficient monitoring by LEDU. NIAO finds that many of these failings show non-observance of the Public Accounts Committee's recommendations in its report "The proper conduct of public business" (HC 154, 8th report session 1993-94). The poor standards of administration fell far below the normal standards operating elsewhere in the Northern Ireland public sector. Invest Northern Ireland and the Department have undertaken a number of actions and current corporate governance arrangements are very different. NIAO believes there are lessons of relevance here to the wider public sector.