Book Description

The company Into the West (ITW) was established in 1997 as a partnership between the former Local Enterprise Development Unit and five district councils in Northern Ireland to promote local economic development in the Tyrone and Fermanagh area. Following a joint investigation by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and the Local Government Auditor into allegations of financial impropriety and poor management controls involving considerable sums of public money, ITW's activities were suspended from March 2002, and the company entered voluntary liquidation in June 2004. This report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office focuses on ITW's use of overseas agents (based in Australia, New Zealand and North America) to help promote joint business ventures between local firms and overseas companies. It draws a number of conclusions in relation to: the standard of documentation, the appointment of agents and the contractual arrangements involved, management and control procedures, payments to agents and performance, and the poor planning of a proposed visit to Australia; and based on these findings sets out a number of good practice recommendations for the use of agents by government departments and other public bodies in the future.