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| Failed offices scheme cost £13m | Failed offices scheme cost £13m |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| A failed plan to sell and lease back government office buildings in Northern Ireland cost taxpayers almost £13m. | A failed plan to sell and lease back government office buildings in Northern Ireland cost taxpayers almost £13m. |
| The Workplace 2010 scheme would have seen 65 government buildings sold to private companies who would then lease them back to the civil service. | The Workplace 2010 scheme would have seen 65 government buildings sold to private companies who would then lease them back to the civil service. |
| The figure was revealed in a written answer to UUP MLA George Savage from Finance Minister Nigel Dodds. | The figure was revealed in a written answer to UUP MLA George Savage from Finance Minister Nigel Dodds. |
| Mr Dodds said his department had incurred total costs of £12.85m in expenses arising from the project. | Mr Dodds said his department had incurred total costs of £12.85m in expenses arising from the project. |
| The minister said this total included costs on legal, commercial, financial and technical consultancy and other professional fees, which were incurred from when the scheme was first launched in 2005 until 2009. | The minister said this total included costs on legal, commercial, financial and technical consultancy and other professional fees, which were incurred from when the scheme was first launched in 2005 until 2009. |
| It also included all costs associated with the legal challenge to the procurement and an estimate of the internal costs associated with the procurement. | It also included all costs associated with the legal challenge to the procurement and an estimate of the internal costs associated with the procurement. |
| Mr Dodds said approximately 45% of the work associated with consultancy and professional fees "remained of value to the department". | Mr Dodds said approximately 45% of the work associated with consultancy and professional fees "remained of value to the department". |
| The Workplace 2010 scheme was dropped in February after the last two bidders in the process, Telereal and Trillium, merged into one company. | |
| At that time, a Department of Finance and Personnel report said falling property prices made the scheme unviable. | |
| Nipsa general secretary John Corey said the money had been wasted on the project. | |
| "We had always considered this PFI (private finance initiative) contract as wrong and a mistake," he said. | |
| "The fact that this amount of money has been wasted on this confirms that this PFI exercise should not have proceeded." |