Report On The Agri-Food And Biosciences Institute (AFBI)

NIA 162/11-15, Nineteenth Report of Session 2011-15 - Report, Together with the Minutes of Proceedings of the Committee Relating to the Report and the Minutes of Evidence

Author:
Northern Ireland Assembly - Public Accounts Committee
Publisher:
TSO (The Stationery Office)
Price: £22.00

The report 'Report On The Agri-Food And Biosciences Institute (AFBI) (NIA 162/11-15)' examines the performance of the the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI).

The Committee recognises the importance of AFBI's work to the local agri-food industry, but concludes that the delivery of AFBI's operations has been undermined by poor internal management and by inadequate oversight by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD).

The report highlights that adequate costing systems were not introduced in AFBI until late 2012 but DARD continued to provide annual funding of over £40 million to the Institute, without having any assurance on the efficiency of AFBI's operations.

AFBI's estate is very inefficient, with £51.2 million spent on this between 2006 and 2011. Up to £3.5 million income was lost by AFBI due to it undercharging customers until 2011.

There is a lack of hard information on the costs of scientific testing undertaken by AFBI for DARD, and of the costs of maintaining an emergency response capability to counter major disease outbreaks.

The management of the programme of research and development delivered by AFBI for DARD was unacceptably poor. Overall, this programme overspent by £12.7 million. When DARD finally exercised some form of meaningful oversight of research and development in 2012, two-thirds of ongoing projects, which collectively cost £18.2 million, were immediately terminated.

Extent 277 pages ISBN 9780339605152
Size A4 Price £22.00
Format Paperback Published 12 Mar 2014
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