Patsy McGlone 13th October 2009

MCGLONE: RPA IMPLEMENTATION COSTING MORE THAN £90MILLION

SDLP Mid Ulster MLA Patsy McGlone has revealed the implementation of the Review of Public Administration (RPA) by Stormont departments, a measure to save money, has cost more that £90million.

Mr McGlone, a member of the Stormont Public Accounts Committee, has tabled a number of Assembly questions to the Stormont departments to detail the amount accrued under RPA. The current all-department spend was £90,789,748. Only the Department of Education and the Department for Regional Development have as yet failed to detail figures.

Mr McGlone said: “I’m absolutely shocked by this. There is a massive concern that departments are sleepwalking into a situation that they cannot control. A big reality check is urgently required from the Executive to get a grip of this.

“The Department of Health has spent almost £74million pounds on implementing a cost cutting exercise. We all know the constraints placed upon the Department of Health so it’s inconceivable that so much money should be spent on RPA. Just last week, in my own constituency area, we had four people in the Mid Ulster hospital on trolleys because no beds were available for them at the Causeway and Antrim hospitals, proposals put in place due to cost cutting.

“I recognise that departments have to spend money to implement the new structure. However, these figures don’t include costs likely to be incurred at a considerable burden by local councils through restructuring such as voluntary redundancies, management reorganisation and other technical running costs within the councils.

“The total figure, £90million is an astronomical sum considering the pressure put upon everyone in today’s economic climate. We have yet to receive the figures from two departments, education and regional development, so we are talking about a non-definitive figure at this point. The current total looks more like a Belfast telephone number than the implementation of a cost-cutting initiative.”
 

ENDS

Notes to editors: The breakdown per department for implementation of the Review of Public Administration is:
OFMDFM - £5.1M
DOE - £5.29M
DETI - £60,000
DEL - £64,000
DSD - £1.1M
DCAL - £3.866M
DARD - ££6,600
DFP - £1.5M
DHSS - £73.8M

DRD and DE have yet to respond to Mr McGlone’s assembly question.