A HEATING expert flagged flaws in RHI with public body Invest NI - years before the Stormont department responsible for the scheme became aware of the problems.
Alastair Nicol worked for Element Consultants, a company which helped firms that were clients of Invest NI - a business development agency which is part of Stormont's enterprise department.
The RHI inquiry yesterday heard how his reports appeared to repeatedly identify flaws in RHI from an early stage.
"Examples are how it could be gamed or manipulated, the potentially very high returns available in the scheme," inquiry counsel Donal Lunny said.
"And you appear to have been reflecting to Invest NI that the market was aware of this issue and all of this appears to have been well before the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment [Deti] and its officials were aware of this issue."
Mr Lunny said a key question for the inquiry would be why Invest NI did not pass on those concerns to Deti, which was in charge of the RHI scheme.
Attending the inquiry yesterday, Mr Nicol said he reported the flaws and allegations of potential fraud to Ofgem - the government body responsible for administering the Northern Ireland scheme.
He said he told a senior Ofgem official the scheme was "skewing the prices of boilers" and could be "manipulated" to increase claimants' earnings.
It had also been "rumoured in the marketplace" that RHI claimants could also achieve higher metre readings by altering liquid density in the heating systems, he added.
The inquiry heard that in 2013, less than a year after the scheme began, Mr Nicol published a report identifying flaws in its operation.
Inquiry panellist Dame Una O'Brien said she had heard "weeks of evidence" from Deti officials saying they were unaware of problems until years later.
In one email, the inquiry heard that Mr Nicol expressed "exasperation and discontent" over the potential for RHI claimants in Northern Ireland to manipulate the scheme.
Later, the inquiry heard from Jim Clarke, a technical adviser at Invest NI who would have reviewed reports like those carried out by Mr Nicol before passing them to the client.
Mr Clarke accepted he was aware in October 2014 of a "loophole" in RHI allowing claimants to use multiple smaller boilers instead of one larger unit for greater returns.
He said the view at Invest NI was that the scheme was "government policy", adding: "Therefore, why question government policy?"
He said he raised RHI concerns with his line manager, Peter Larmour, but Mr Larmour says in his witness statement that "at no stage" was he aware of flaws flagged in technical reports.
The RHI inquiry was set up after the subsidy scheme - aimed at encouraging the use of eco-friendly wood pellet boilers - ran significantly over budget due to a lack of cost controls.
The political fallout over the scandal led to the executive's collapse and the continued Stormont deadlock.
Today the inquiry is set to hear from Invest NI chief executive Alastair Hamilton and former Moy Park chief executive Janet McCollum.
