6,000 EMPTY DESKS IN CIVIL SERVICE
REPORT BLASTS £17m WASTE
ONE in five government office desks are lying empty across Northern Ireland — costing the public purse more than £17.3m each year, it has emerged.
A fresh report into the government’s estate shows that around 18% of desks — 6,382 — are sitting vacant and unused.
The situation has been blasted as “not delivering value for money” for the taxpayer.
The report from the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) also said there is “little evidence” that departments are setting challenging targets, making measuring their performance hard to measure.
The auditor notes that “it is difficult to assess whether the office estate is being effectively managed”.
Kieran Donnelly, comptroller and auditor general, said: “The current configuration and management of the office buildings used by government departments is not delivering value for money.
“The existing office estate consists to a significant extent, of highly inefficient cellular and ageing accommodation.”
Mr Donnelly (below) said that just two out of 10 recommendations outlined in a previous report have been “fully implemented”.
He welcomed the £17.7m of savings made since 2011, but said that “many opportunities still exist to release further savings”.
There are 276 offices across the estate, with half owned outright and the rest rented.
The cost of running the office space amounts to around £96m each year. The entire office estate provides more than 35,000 workstations.
But the report says the Department of Health incurred “irregular expenditure of £441,000” by failing to secure approval from the Department of Finance to extend office leases.
“Departments and public bodies need to attach a higher priority to gathering and maintaining data to understand the capacity, suitability, and functionality of individual buildings across the government estate and to measure performance regarding its economic and efficient management.”
It also says that holding on to buildings which are not longer of use incurs both maintenance costs, and “also delays the receipt of income which the sale of those buildings would bring the public purse”.
It recommends the setting up of a “central surplus asset register”.
The report says that “the cur- rent configuration of the office estate is not delivering value for money”.
“The actions taken to improve management of the office estate are encouraging and we note that financial savings have been reported. In our view, however, progress has been too slow,” it says.
It added that following a report in 2012 into the estate, some progress was made but it “also highlights that much remains to be done”.
“Over five years since publication, many of our recommendations have not been fully implemented,” it says.
These include the absence of a central property register, a lack of challenging targets, limited means to measure performance and limited evidence that buildings surplus to requirements were being sold off.
Mr Donnelly continued: “I welcome the generation of £17.7m in savings across the office estate since the 2012 report, but many opportunities still exist to release further, significant savings.
A Department of Finance (DoF) spokesperson said: “This report encompasses offices managed by DoF and other departments.
“DoF’s Reform of Property Management programme plans to centralise the management of the office estate.
“The report says that this will help address many of the issues raised.
“The department has received the NIAO report and will consider it in full.
The spokesperson added: “Given that NIAO reports may be subject to a PAC hearing, it would be inappropriate for the department to comment in detail at this stage.”