A DUP-run department "failed to comply with its approved Equality Scheme commitments" when it scrapped a Gaeltacht bursary scheme which was at the centre of a bitter political row.
An Equality Commission investigation found screening and equality impact assessment were not carried out ahead of funding decisions by the Department for Communities for the Líofa Gaeltacht Bursary Scheme for 2017 and the controversial Community Halls Pilot Programme.
Former DUP minister Paul Givan provoked anger among Irish language campaigners when he scrapped the Líofa Gaeltacht bursary just days before Christmas 2016.
The decision happened amid strained relations between the two parties over the botched Renewable Heat Incentive scheme which contributed to the collapse of power-sharing.
In a U-turn in January 2017, the former communities minister later reinstated the scheme, saying he did not want Sinn Féin to use it as a "political weapon".
The community halls programme was launched in 2016 by former first minister Arlene Foster and the communities minister during a visit to an Orange hall.
Thirty-four Orange halls and two Masonic halls were among the 90 successful applicants to the programme, but just two GAA clubs and two Ancient Order of Hibernians halls were awarded funding.
The Equality Commission said both the Scheme and the Programme should have been treated as `policies' and been subject to the equality scheme arrangements as they concern "the distribution of public money based on set criteria and award processes".
Investigators said the funding options presented to the minister for decision "should have been informed by an equality assessment against the objectives set for the expenditure".
Instead, civil servants made a submission on Líofa Gaeltacht Bursary Scheme to Mr Girvan in December 2016 with "no equality assessment information... included for the minister's consideration".
The department has admitted it "did not undertake equality screening before the launch of the (Community Halls Pilot) Programme in October 2016... (stating) that this was due to an administrative error".
However, the Commission found that the department failed to comply with its own Equality Scheme when "it did not screen the programme at the earliest opportunity and prior to its implementation".
Chief Commissioner Dr Michael Wardlow said failure to adhere to Section 75 statutory duties and departmental Equality Schemes risk commitments to equality of opportunity.
"The department should have undertaken screening and equality impact assessment at appropriate times to inform the development and decision making on both the Scheme and the Programme," he said.
"Our investigation found that this did not happen in either case and the minister was not furnished with appropriate equality assessment information.
"We have made a number of recommendations which we expect the department to implement.
"Our recommendations include the need for the department to take a consistent approach to the identification of policies for the purposes of its Equality Scheme arrangements; and to ensure that decision makers are presented with appropriate information on the equality implications.
"Any continuation of either funding programme must be informed by equality assessments in the future. We have asked the department to report on the implementation of the recommendations within six months."
