NI Water overspend investigation: Minister rejects ‘whitewash’ claim

Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins has rejected a Democratic Unionist Party suggestion that an investigation into an overspend by NI Water was a “whitewash”.

On Tuesday, Kimmins updated the Northern Ireland Assembly on the outcome of a probe into why the body had been unable to live within its budget for 2024-25.

She appointed forensic accountants in March after NI Water informed her department of an estimated overspend of about £3m.

Kimmins said an intervention from her department helped reduce the overspend to about £1.4m and added that NI Water needed to “shape its services to live within the budget available”.

She said the report, produced by PricewaterhouseCoopers, was not an “indictment” of NI Water but concluded it was “essential NI Water considers recalibrating its costs… rather than relying on the passage of time”.

The minister added that if NI Water had been able to negotiate 5% worth of savings in other costs it would have “coincidentally almost equalled the amount of the overspend”.

The report concluded that a lack of certainty by NI Water regarding its budget “shows a need for better budgetary control”.

The chairwoman of Stormont’s Infrastructure Committee, Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) assembly member Deborah Erskine, said the report was a “whitewash”.

She added that it did not reveal anything new and that the minister needed to come back with “measurable targets” as to how NI Water was going to meet its aims while living within its budget.

Kimmins replied: “I don’t agree that it is a whitewash, I think this is an important piece of work that has clearly identified areas of improvement and has helped to reinforce the challenging budgetary position we’re in.”

“We all have to look at where we can make efficiencies and this has clearly identified those areas of work.”

Mark H Durkan, of the Social Democratic and Labour Party – Stormont’s official opposition – said the minister’s statement was “silent” on how NI Water would get the budget it needs.

Kimmins responded that the solution was “more money”, but questioned where that would be found in the current financial climate.

She also repeated that she would not consider the introduction of water charges as a way of raising additional revenue that could go towards her department’s budget.

“It’s OK to wax lyrical about all the things that I’m doing but I haven’t heard a solution – I know the solution, it’s more money – but where are we getting it from?”

Earlier this month, an independent watchdog concluded that the Stormont Executive would need to raise money from water charges or other sources if it wants to improve the performance of NI Water.