Sport Northern Ireland return £1m over last two years after underspend

Sport NI has underspent its budget by £500,000 in each of the past two years, resulting in £1m being returned to the Department of Communities - an outcome interim chief executive Richard Archibald has admitted is "disappointing".

Sport NI is a publicly funded body which encourages people's participation in sport and physical activity in Northern Ireland, as well as working to support elite level athletes.

Funded by both government and the National Lottery, the arm's length body was recently deemed to be struggling following a review by its parent department.

Sport NI board minutes outline how Department of Communities representatives last year set out their views on "the performance of Sport NI in the areas of governance, financial management and delivery" and that the organisation had been "regarded as a risk by the Department of Communities Audit Committee."

Confirming the £1m underspend, a Department of Communities spokesman told BBC Sport: "As it is not possible to carry easements from one financial year into the next, the Sport NI £1m easement was used to address other departmental pressures at that time."

In response, Sport NI's interim CEO Archibald told BBC Sport: "It's disappointing, absolutely, because if we have a million pounds, we want to use a million pounds.

"We have a relatively limited resource and we recognise there are huge pressures across the public sector. But we really are working to provide more money for more sports.

'Only 53% of business plan objectives achieved in 2023'

"We learnt coming out of Covid that how we had operated in the past could change. We developed more responsive programmes.

"As we've transitioned from a pandemic and urgent way of working back to business as usual, we wanted to bring more of those practices in.

"That's led to a shift in emphasis and focus in some of the programmes we've been running, in some cases, for many years. And in that process there wasn't the full utilisation as we would have wanted."

Last year Sport NI met only 53% of its Business Plan objectives, with business planning delayed by six months instead of being approved before the start of the new financial year.

In addition, it is currently is working through an arrears of outstanding National Lottery accounts. The last audit of accounts certified by the Comptroller and Auditor General were those for 2015-6.

"There was a period 10 years ago where there was a backlog that built up in both our Lottery and Exchequer accounts," Archibald explained.

"It's challenging because the lottery accounts have to go through both the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the National Audit Office - but we had the 2015-6 accounts laid in Parliament in September and we are due to finish another three sets of accounts by the end of March. We are putting in a huge amount of effort to bring them up to date.

"The focus for us now is on leadership - and a lot of effort has gone into that over the last two years to ensure that is the case, without disrupting our support to the governing bodies, the sports clubs, and making sure we have enough resources to access and provide more money for more sports."

The turbulence in Sport NI between 2014 and 2017 which included the suspension, dismissal and subsequent reinstatement of chief executive Antoinette McKeown was estimated to have cost the public purse £1.5m

This year marks 50 years of the body and Sport NI has been looking to emerge from a turbulent history over the past decade.

In 2015, nine of the 14 members of its board resigned ahead of a meeting with then Sports Minister Caral Ni Chuilin to discuss an internal report into "serious allegations" about the "leadership, management and the overall culture" of the organisation. Subsequently, Chair Brian Henning and vice-chair Ian McAvoy would also step down.

In the same year, CEO Antoinette McKeown was suspended and then dismissed when charges of gross misconduct were laid against her.

An independent appeals panel later overturned those charges, saying it had found flaws with the disciplinary process and Ms McKeown returned to post in July 2017.

Four years ago a damning report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office into the period found it had cost the public purse an estimated £1.5m.

McKeown currently absent from post

Archibald, a former rower who competed at the 2004 Athens Olympics, has worked at Sport NI for 15 years but has been the interim CEO for the past five months.

Asked about Ms McKeown's current absence from post, he told BBC Sport: "It's not appropriate for me to comment on personnel matters relating to individual staff matters.

"The critical thing is, right now, I'm the CEO and I'm really well supported. I have a strong relationship with the board and the Department for Communities."

Asked about its ongoing relationship with its arm's length body, a Department for Communities spokesman said that "the Department continues to work with the board and the executive team at Sport NI to ensure that it operates within an appropriate governance framework to address all levels of risk and to enable the organisation to deliver positive outcomes for sport."