The public body which runs Northern Ireland’s multi-million pound legal aid scheme is structurally and managerially “not fit for purpose”, a damning report has claimed.

The Belfast Telegraph can today reveal that serious concerns over Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission’s management, financial administration, failure to produce any audited accounts and its overall service delivery have been raised in a Landscape Review of the body.

The review also found that a majority of staff do not have confidence in the chairman, chief executive and other directors.

The commission, which is responsible for funding legal aid in civil and criminal cases, has said it has now implemented a comprehensive action plan to address the report’s findings and that “good progress” has been made.

The commission also said that it has been “vigorously pursuing many of the issues identified since well before it was made aware of the findings”.

The review, commissioned by the Northern Ireland Court Service, found that “current structures and governance arrangements (within LSC) are not fit for purpose” and that the commission’s corporate planning process has been “characterised by delays and poor process”.

Management was criticised for not providing “balanced leadership” and concern was raised over the lack of pre-planning regarding the potential impact on the LSC of the devolution of policing and justice.

The review report states: “We have not seen evidence of a (top management team) which is operating effectively as a corporate entity providing balanced leadership to the organisation, although we do note that the full complement of senior management has never been in place and that there have been unhelpful changes in personnel during the short period since the Commission was established.

“These points lead us to conclude that the senior management team as currently configured and resourced is not likely to be capable of discharging the Commission’s duties effectively in a devolved environment, ie, an environment which is likely to place even greater challenges on the executive leadership within the organisation. This applies equally to the capacity to implement the findings of the Landscape Review.”

The Commission — tasked with promoting “fair and equal access to justice in Northern Ireland in its provision of publicly funded legal services” — has an annual resource budget of £65m for the Comprehensive Spending Review 07 period covering the financial years 2008-09, 2009-10, and 2010-11.

The review team however has raised concern over the Commission’s ability to comply with the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review saying that its draft corporate plan “does not provide any detail regarding the analysis which led to the determination of a resource requirement of £65m per annum ... nor have documents of this nature been provided to the review team”.

Concern was also raised over the fact that at the time of the report’s completion last year the LSC had not produced any audited accounts since its establishment in November 2003.

The report states that the Commission’s delivery of service compares “unfavourably” with its sister organisations in England and Wales and in Scotland. The review also found that 92% of staff who responded to a questionnaire did not think the Commission “has adequate resources to provide a quality service and deliver the reform programme”. 62% do not have confidence in the chairman and commissioners and 53% do not have confidence in the chief executive and directors.

The Commission has undertaken an action plan to address recommendations made in the review and has been “vigorously pursuing many of the issues identified in the report”.

Responding to the report a spokeswoman for the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission said: “The Commission is committed to service improvement and to acting on the wide-ranging recommendations of the Landscape Review as demonstrated in the Action Plan that has been published at the same time. As is stated in the introduction to that plan, good progress is being made in addressing the review team’s findings and the Commission has been vigorously pursuing many of the issues identified since well before it was made aware of the findings.”

The Legal Services Commission said completion of a Landscape Review is normal practice at an early stage in the development of an Executive Non Departmental Public Body as a means to identify and make recommendations on issues which may impact on the effectiveness of the organisation and its relationship with its sponsor department, in this case the Northern Ireland Court Service.