Northern Ireland

RHI inquiry: Stormont auditor found the most serious flaws

Michael Woods yesterday appearing before the RHI Inquiry
Michael Woods yesterday appearing before the RHI Inquiry Michael Woods yesterday appearing before the RHI Inquiry

A SENIOR Stormont auditor has told the RHI Inquiry that of 500 reports he had completed in his career, his investigation into the flawed energy scheme found the most serious flaws.

Michael Woods, a senior auditor in Stormont's enterprise department, yesterday said a report he compiled on the scheme in 2016 made eight findings, of which seven needed priority attention.

Mr Woods, head of internal audit in the enterprise department, said he could not recall any scheme where the system of oversight had been that bad.

"This is the worst opinion I have ever had to give," he said.

He also told the inquiry that among the problems he found was that there was no understanding of how the budget worked and the absence of formal project management meant a planned review of the scheme in 2014 was missed.

His report also stated that he found that there were no controls to mitigate vulnerability to rising demand.

Mr Woods also told the long-running inquiry that auditors planning to inspect the running of the scheme were not told of the potential risks it posed.

He said when he began making plans for an audit in early 2015, he was not alerted to any issues with RHI.

"I was told nothing about any problems in the scheme," he said.

The inquiry also heard evidence from Kieran Donnelly, head of the Northern Ireland Audit Office, which first exposed the RHI scandal.

The comptroller and auditor general said civil servants needed to go "back to basics" when it came to spending public money.

Mr Donnelly told the panel that the problems with the initiative took a long time to deal with, and could have "been extracted sooner if mistakes had been acknowledged" and referred up the civil service chain of management.

He also told the inquiry that a "massive change in behaviours" was needed across all civil service departments.

Mr Donnelly said he believed civil servants should have been treating all public money as if it was their own.

"That needs to be ingrained in the mindset of the civil service," he said.

Launched in 2012, the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was designed to encourage businesses to switch from burning fossil fuels to more sustainable alternatives.

But the subsidies were worth more than the cost of wood pellets, encouraging firms to 'burn to earn'.

Delays in introducing cost controls brought a spike in applications and pushed the multi-million-pound government scheme hugely over budget.

The RHI inquiry will hear next week from two former Stormont executive ministers – Sinn Féin's Máirtín Ó Muilleoir and the DUP's Simon Hamilton – in what is scheduled to be the inquiry's final week of oral hearings.