Northern Ireland tourist chiefs in New York ran up nearly £25,000 in travel and hospitality claims on an unauthorised company credit card which went unchecked for almost a year, a report revealed today.
The North's enterprise minister Sir Reg Empey was tonight under intense pressure to act after the damning Audit Office probe.
Mr John Dallat, a member of the Stormont Assembly's public accounts committee, was stunned by the sums uncovered at the Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB)'s New York office.
"By any stretch of the imagination this is a devastating report which requires the direct intervention of the minister," he said.
"The use of a credit card for a whole year after the NITB believed it has been withdrawn is bad enough. To have bills of £24,300 run up on it and receipts for less than half is a monumental scandal."
Although head office demanded the American Express card be scrapped, New York manager Mr David Boyce claimed staggering expenses before alarm bells finally sounded in NITB's finance department.
A Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) report today confirmed half of the bill was submitted without any receipts.
Department of Enterprise permanent secretary Mr Bruce Robinson and NITB chiefs are now set to be grilled when they appear before the committee on May 30th.
As well as inappropriate hospitality spending in New York, including costs for hotel movies and spa services, an investigation of the accounts for 2000-2001 also disclosed:
- Consultancy work worth £34,000 awarded to the NITB's former chief executive Ian Henderson without public tender
- The former deputy chief executive Mark Alexander was paid £60,000 to buy out his contract, with another £4,000 given to recruitment consultants to help find him a new job
- Salary hikes worth £23,500 given to two senior staff members without government approval
- A £30,000 out-of-court settlement made to a former employee following a discrimination complaint.
Earlier this year the board came under fire for awarding lucrative printing contracts to a firm run by its chairman, Mr Roy Bailie, without public tender.
Mr Bailie is due to stand down next June at the end of a second three-year term.
Mr Henderson left in January 2000 and Mr Alexander departed 10 months later with a year of his contract still to run.
It is understood Mr Henderson is still carrying out consultancy work for two NITB projects. Today's NIAO report comes after the founding of Tourism Ireland, a new body set up under the terms of the Belfast Agreement which involved the amalgamation of the overseas offices of the tourist board and Bord Fáilte.
PA