Concerns Over Fresh EC Fine On DARD

The DUP MEP Diane Dodds has slammed this week's announcement by the European Commission that Northern Ireland will face a fine of £4m for inadequate control procedures on agricultural expenditure.

Mrs Dodds also questioned whether the NI Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) was in control of the situation and if the Department "had a plan to resolve the issue".

Commenting Mrs Dodds said: "These fines are very worrying but not unexpected as it has been clear for sometime that our land mapping is not fit for purpose.

"Such fines will continue until a proper mapping system is in place which can command the confidence of Europe by meeting the control procedures governing EU expenditure," she said.

"When I met with the DARD Minister in the summer my fears were reinforced. It could be early 2013 before there is a better mapping system in place which will mean this may well not be the last fine we receive," she claimed, adding that the previous DARD Minister gave assurances that this matter would be resolved within a short timeframe.

"I fear that will not be the case. However, work on the matter must be expedited and made a priority for the Department. How long is DARD going to allow Northern Ireland taxpayers to be penalised for this inadequate system? It is high time for the Department to get a grip of the situation and bring it under control," she fumed.

Disallowance

Yesterday, the NI Agriculture and Rural Development Minister Michelle O'Neill made clear that a programme of work is indeed underway to minimise the risk of future disallowance.

She was commenting in the wake of the European Commission's announcement that they intend to recover monies from a number of Member States for non-compliance with EC rules.

The Minister said: "The disallowance allotted to NI follows audits carried out in 2006 and 2008 relating to the Single Farm Payment Scheme.

"It relates to the Department's decisions at the time of the allocation of Single Farm Payment entitlements and the impact of this in 2005-2007.

"Elements of this disallowance had previously been announced by my predecessor, Michelle Gildernew, last September. It should be seen in the context of a Single Farm Payment (SFP) allocation of well over £250m per annum," she countered.

The Minister added that her Department is implementing a programme of EU audit compliance to significantly reduce or eliminate future disallowance.

She said: "I am determined that taxpayers do not continue to be penalised for control weaknesses. I want to be able to demonstrate to the Commission that our controls provide an adequate level of assurance that we are correctly paying SFP and other area based schemes."

The Sinn Fein Minister added: "A central component to this is the LPIS (Land Parcel Identification System) Improvement Project which will revise every farm map and provide farmers with an estimate of the eligible land for each field.

"The project is on-going and we plan to start to issue revised maps later this year. This will put in place an accurate, stable mapping system which will provide reassurance to the Commission that our practices meet their requirements."

The Minister continued: "In addition to this, my Department has asked the NI Audit Office to carry out additional work to assure the Commission that its controls meet their requirements.

"This approach has been particularly welcomed by the Commission. In the coming weeks, I plan to update the [Stormont] Agriculture and Rural Development Committee and indeed the wider Assembly on the detail of this Programme of EU audit compliance.

"However I must stress that even if DARD's programme to tackle disallowance is successful, it is unlikely to affect the decisions on historical disallowance which, like this one, move slowly through the European system."

The Minister concluded: "The decisions on these matters lie ultimately with the Commission and we will continue to engage with them to minimise disallowance, which is a problem being encountered by many member states.

"Indeed this recent announcement highlights that [NI] is not alone in facing disallowance with corrections being applied across a number of Member States because of non-compliance with EU rules or inadequate control procedures."

The former Agriculture Minister, Michelle Gildernew was in charge in 2010 when the EC imposed an earlier £60m fines for alleged mal-administration of EU farming subsidies - which she said was not about any over-claiming by farmers.

The over payments were being blamed instead on poor mapping of land, which was being addressed in 2010 and is now being tackled afresh with the Land Parcel Identification System Improvement Project.

See: DARD Flies In With Farm Payments

(BMcC)