THERE have been calls for Fermanagh and Omagh District Council to review its financial support for public services after it was revealed it spent almost £3 million less than it indented to.
In the 2024/25 financial year, the total net operating expenditure for the Council was £41.4 million against a planned budget of £44.3 million.
Local Cllr Mark Ovens has claimed that instead of the underspend being invested in front line public services, the money was largely being redirected to internal capital reserves.
He claimed that it is to off-set huge future costs for projects such as the redevelopment of the Fermanagh Lakeland Forum in Enniskillen, which is currently ongoing.
“The vast majority of money spent by Fermanagh and Omagh Council comes through the collection of rates from local households and businesses,” Cllr Ovens explained.
“Yet more and more people are questioning whether what they are receiving in return is really value for money.
“Far too many frontline public facing services are either being stripped back, experiencing disruptions or simply not happening at all.”
The local councillor has called on the Council to review how it spends its money.
“Fermanagh and Omagh Council took a decision a number of years ago to abandon the maintenance and appearance of public roundabouts and dropped the hugely popular fireworks displays,” said Cllr Ovens.
“Those decisions were taken supposedly on the grounds that they were no longer affordable, although they were relatively smalls sums of money, and yet for the third year in a row Fermanagh and Omagh Council has reported a huge underspend or variance in its final budget position.”
Variance
He continued, “Throughout the last twelve months I have repeatedly raised with senior management the fact that the Council was on a trajectory for a significant underspend.
“In the end, the variance of what it had planned to spend compared to what it did net spend was over £2,919,350, or seven per-cent of the Council’s entire budget for the year.”
Cllr Ovens also called on the Council to consider how it “ultimately serve ratepayers and local people”, urging them to allocate some of the funds into public services in Fermanagh.
“Some of the difference is because the Council collected more in rates than it had initially planned to, and the successful outcome on a previous HMRC legal case, but other elements of the underspend relate to reductions in staff costs and savings in energy costs,” he said.
“That money should have been reinvested for the benefit of all local people and businesses, but instead it’s being directed towards the huge costs of projects such as the redevelopment of the Fermanagh Lakeland Forum.
“To happen three years in a row I worry is more than just a coincidence. I hope sooner rather than later the Council remembers that it is there to ultimately serve ratepayers and local people, not itself.”