Department behind RHI scheme has undergone ‘major restructure’
THE department that ran a botched green energy scheme has undergone a “major restructuring exercise”, a Stormont committee has heard.
Colin Lewis, deputy permanent secretary at the Department for the Economy, said it suffered reputational damage over the RHI scandal.
The scheme has been examined by a public inquiry led by Sir Patrick Coghlin. Its report is expected soon.
Yesterday Department for the Economy officials briefed an oversight committee at Stormont.
Mr Lewis said the department has gone through a “major restructuring exercise” over the last 18 months, which he described as “necessary in light of findings arising from the RHI inquiry”.
“It goes without saying that the reputation and credibility of the department has been severely called into question as a result of the inquiry, and the report will no doubt identify major failings in the areas of corporate governance and accountability,” he told the committee. “As you can understand, morale among our staff was not high and far below where we would want it to be.
“It falls to the permanent secretary and myself working in tandem with my colleagues to restore reputation. In order to do this, it is awfully clear that we are going to have to be better than everyone else and demonstrate significant improvement.
“A lot of work has already been done on this, we are not waiting for a report to come out, not least the fundamental reorganisation of the department.”
The department’s head of energy Richard Rodgers outlined the impact of the scheme.
“The position we then found ourselves in leading up to the end of the last executive was the first 1,700-1,800 were continuing to generate a lot more heat than expected and the adverse to the budget which was available to the scheme was projected to be, over the 20 years, around about £650m,” he said.
Mr Rodgers said regulations were introduced to reduce costs, adding that the amount of budget available for the renewable heat scheme now is around £30m, and the amount currently used is £5m to £6m.
The most recent regulations introduced in 2019 are being challenged in the courts.
Mr Rodgers said around 2,000 live participants remain on the scheme, adding that Economy Minister Diane Dodds has asked officials to look at proposals for its closure.
“It’s important to emphasise that it is not an easy answer because of the potential risk of litigation,” he said.