Oops!
| 13:41 UK time, Thursday, 20 August 2009
Eyebrows were raised when the assembly weekly written answer's book revealed the travel and other costs for the plethora of public bodies/quangos in Northern Ireland.
SF MLA Martina Anderson had sought a breakdown of costs which revealed that the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company's annual travel bill was the highest at £3.1 million. Naturally I made inquiries about how this figure came about. And days (and I mean days later) was told by the press office that it was all an error. It seems the actual bill for last year was £144,600. A spokesman explained it was a "clerical error." The DRD has phoned to say the mistake was its fault.
Oh and let's not go there about Northern Ireland Water whose travel bill was £1.3 million. Can I get an answer out of those people?????
Now I know NIW has a history of math trouble, what with over-charging and under-charging customers, but why am I still waiting for a comment on their bill from Monday when after waiting HOURS was told I'd have their response first thing in morning.
Still waiting....Is anyone going to sign off that response? It is called news for a reason you know!
A statement finally dropped into my email from NIW at 4.09 today August 20 (The query was lodged Monday the 17th in the morning. Along with an apology for inconvenience and a pledge to answer other Freedom of Information questions in due course, a spokesperson for NI Water commented:
"The vast majority of NI Water's travel costs are incurred to enable its 1,447 employees to carry out their day to day duties right across all of Northern Ireland.
"As NI Water does not provide company cars or a car allowances, all staff who do not have access to maintenance vans use their own personal vehicles as they travel between our 5,191 operational sites and dispersed office network. The NI Water mileage allowance paid to staff is the Automobile Association's approved rate for employees using their own private cars for business purposes.
"NI Water is focused on delivering value for money and we are satisfied that our travel costs benchmark very well against other similar Northern Ireland utilities."
I'm 
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