Covid-19: Almost £9m wrongly paid in business support

Almost £9m was wrongly paid out by Stormont's main Covid-19 business support scheme, a public spending watchdog has estimated.

The auditor general examined the Localised Restrictions Support Scheme (LRSS).

Between October 2020 and May 2021 it paid grants to businesses unable to operate due to the pandemic.

It paid out a total of almost £246m, meaning about 96% of grants were correctly paid.

The auditor general estimates that of £8.73m in ineligible payments, an estimated £4.52m related to overpayments identified by the Department of Finance (DoF).

• Stormont seeks to recover millions in Covid grants

• Less than 25% of ineligible Covid grants returned

These overpayments were due to errors such as duplicate payments, payments to business types not eligible for support and payments to businesses that had ceased trading before or during the restriction period.

The DoF now classes almost £2m of this as "doubtful debt" meaning it is unlikely to be paid back.

The remaining £4.21m of ineligible payments relates to estimated error identified by the Northern Ireland Audit Office during its audit testing.

The Auditor General, Kieran Donnelly, said the department had faced "unprecedented and challenging circumstances" in delivering various grant schemes.

"The Department of Finance is not normally a grant paying organisation and I recognise the difficulties faced by staff in making payments during the Covid-19 pandemic," he said.

"The department has confirmed it is currently in the process of developing a lessons learned report covering the various business grant schemes."