A NEW school could be built with the money Invest NI is owed in loans default, the Irish News can reveal.
In the last five years the jobs agency has only managed to recover a quarter of what it is owed following companies defaulting on the terms of their deals.
Since the year to the end of the 2013, the enterprise body has issued 197 'clawback' invoices to companies it invested in, totalling £19,173,551.
But so far it has recovered just £4,880,301 of this sum.
Clawback invoices are triggered when a company defaults on the conditions of the financial assistance offered by Invest NI.
In a significant number of these cases the firms in question have closed down – leaving the chances of recovering these monies slim at best.
Invest NI was set up over a decade ago as a non-departmental public body of Stormont’s department for the economy.
It has invested in thousands of companies to the tune of hundred of millions of pounds. It is funded by taxpayers' money.
The figures were disclosed to The Irish News via a freedom of information request.
In a statement accompanying the figures, Invest NI said that "Given that in many cases the company has gone into liquidation, the ability to recover funds is limited, and the amounts recovered and timing of any repayments will be determined by the insolvency process."
It added: "As this process can be lengthy, it is not unusual for payment to be received against a clawback invoice raised a number of years previously."
In 2015, American healthcare company CVS Health axed its operation in Belfast after it received more than £500,000 in funding from Invest NI. A total of 70 jobs were lost in the process.
Invest NI had originally offered the firm almost £2 million in assistance. It had drawn down £538,000 of that money when it closed.
A year previously, call centre Rigney Dolphin announced it was to close its Derry operation. It had been offered £1.2m by Invest NI in 2010 to open the facility. It is unclear if the entire investment has been recovered.
In the same year, Triple Eight Proteins, a meat processor and wholesaler based in the Republic, ceased its operations in Ballygawley. It had been offered a £183,000 investment a few years prior.
Since its inception in 2002, a total of at least 22 companies who were offered financial assistance from Invest NI later either closed, ceased trading or relocated outside of Northern Ireland.
In their original offers, these firms were offered nearly £65m combined.
