Travel costs, restaurant bills and consultancy fees were among the issues raised in the critical audit review of the Oversight Commission’s last year.
Key points included:
£22,216 was paid over a 14-month period to an executive car company.
This included a bill of £118 in April 2007 for one OOC adviser to travel from the Hilton Hotel to a restaurant in south Belfast, and back again some five hours later. The auditors stated that this was approximately a “two-mile journey each way” and “could have been undertaken using a taxi at a fraction of the cost”.
Two advisers similarly used the executive car company in the same month to be driven between the Hilton Hotel and a restaurant in east Belfast, at a cost of £141. The auditors stated that this was “approximately a three-mile journey each way” and would also have been considerably cheaper by taxi.
The Oversight Commissioner, Mr Hutchinson, also used the chauffeur service on two occasions “at a cost of £464 while he had use of a hire car”.
The OOC’s chief of staff Mark Reber resigned from his post in September 2006, but was retained as a consultant over the next three months “at a daily rate of £510 per day”. The auditors continued: “In addition, we noted that Mr Reber’s annual salary for 2006/07 when he worked full time was £45,000 which equates to a daily rate of £187.50 per day.
“During the period September 16, 2006 to December 31, 2006 Mr Reber received an additional £17,595 for working 34.5 days for the commission — this was £4,470 more than he would have earned if he had been a full time employee in that 3.5 month period.”
l Mr Reber’s partner and children flew to Northern Ireland from Canada for Christmas 2006 at a cost of £3,955. This sum “was paid by the OOC despite the fact that he was working as a consultant and the last day he worked for the OOC was December 21, 2006, having previously given notice that he was taking a post in the Republic of Ireland from January 2007”, the memorandum said.
l While on a holiday in Florida in January and February 2007, Mr Hutchinson travelled to Belfast for a high-profile conference entitled “Policing the Future”. The OOC funded his flight from Florida to his home in Ottawa at a cost of £364 and his air travel from Ottawa to Belfast for this event.
“In our opinion the flight from Florida to Ottawa should not have been reimbursed as his contract stated that he was only entitled to travel from his permanent residence and not a holiday home,” the auditors stated.
Mr Hutchinson last night told the Belfast Telegraph that the policing conference was “critical”.
He also stated: ”I felt that my presence and contribution as Oversight Commissioner was important to quantifying the policing progress, and so interrupted my pre-committed Florida holiday to fly home to Ottawa, and then onward to Belfast, before returning to my vacation.”
l The auditors also reported that hospitality expenditure was incurred by OOC with only credit card receipts, rather than the original invoices, used in support of the payments.
“In addition, in several cases the costs incurred appeared excessive,” they added.
The hospitality spending included restaurant meals with individuals from the policing and security sphere. Examples quoted by the auditors included an evening meal for four at the Culloden Hotel, costing £205, in April 2007. There was also an evening meal in September 2006 at Belfast’s Merchant Hotel costing £452.
Belfast Telegraph