Agriculture: There is "a pressing need" to ensure that Department of Agriculture staff be efficiently redeployed now that a new streamlined farm payments scheme has reduced the administrative workload, the Comptroller and Auditor General has said.
The single payment system (SPS) was introduced last year to consolidate a range of scheme-based payments into a single payment. In April, Agriculture estimated that it could operate with 400 fewer staff because of the reduction in administration work. It also estimated it would need 115 fewer staff in district veterinary offices due to falling disease levels and the introduction of a new computer system.
By the end of June, some 250 administrative staff had left, been redeployed or promoted while a further 50 were not yet ready for redeployment.
John Purcell said the reorganisation of staff was still "a work in progress".
The department's accounting officer told him the reorganisation must be done along with the Department of Finance, staff representatives and other departments which may need staff in areas where Agriculture staff were no longer needed.
"While this is no doubt the case, there remains a pressing need to ensure that professional, technical and administrative staff formerly working on schemes replaced by the SPS are deployed in the most efficient and effective way possible in the new environment," Mr Purcell said. He found Agriculture had implemented the SPS system in a "pragmatic and generally satisfactory way".
Some 4,943 appeals had been lodged with Agriculture by farmers who were unhappy with decisions on their entitlements under the new system.
Some 509 appeals were upheld while 64 cases which were rejected were taken to the Office of the Ombudsman.
