Taxpayers have stumped up £1.8m in rent for empty offices, says a new report.
The Stormont Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said the IDB took on 25-year leases in Campsie for offices that were never occupied.
The leases taken out in 1991 and 1992 were brought to an end by IDB’s successor – Invest Northern Ireland – in 2008 and 2010.
PAC chair Paul Maskey said the government had been left for 19 years with “white elephants”.
Mr Maskey said the absence of risk management meant that the opportunity to break the Campsie lease after four years was never taken.
He said PAC was also concerned about poor project management and record keeping.
“Significantly, there was no inquiry into why the options to break the leases were missed. Such an inquiry would have allowed the epartment (of Enterprise, Trade and Investment) to determine whether any individual was culpable of negligence or misconduct and to learn valuable lessons,” he said.
The report also dealt with the Synergy e-Business Incubator (ScBI) in west Belfast.
It said there were similar failings in risk management, project management, record keeping and monitoring of performance.
For £1.2m investment, just 41 sustainable jobs in six companies were created as opposed to 100 jobs in 20 companies, the report said.
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