The education boards have overspent by millions

Northern Ireland Education Minister Barry Gardiner has vowed to get to the bottom of how both the Belfast and the South Eastern area boards ran up huge deficits.

He said that figures he had received show the boards overspent in the last financial year by more than �5m each.

Without urgent action they are in danger of running up another �23m overspend, the minister said.

Accounting responsibilities

Mr Gardiner said that he was taking "swift, decisive action" in "an extremely serious situation".

The statutory inquiry will be led by Dr Bill Jack, the former comptroller and auditor general at the Northern Ireland Audit Office.

It will look at how the deficits came about without any apparent forewarning to the members of each board.

Mr Gardiner said he had become "increasingly concerned about shortcomings in the financial management and control of both boards".

He said the inquiry would focus on the effectiveness of the financial control systems in place in each board.

That implies there were not adequate financial systems and controls in place in those boards Barry Gardiner education minister

Mr Gardiner told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra: "Both boards have reported overspends in excess of �5m for the last financial year.

"They were unaware until earlier this year that they were going to incur those overspends. Indeed they thought they were going to come in within budget in their accounts.

"That implies there were not adequate financial systems and controls in place in those boards."

He said that the chairs of both boards had told him that they were not given the information they required in order to take their financial responsibilities.

"In that situation it is absolutely incumbent on me to find out why there were those failings, why that information was not in place and available to them," he said.

"The best way of doing that is through a statutory inquiry because it makes it completely public and any information Dr Bill Jack applies for, it will be a criminal offence not to supply to him."

Both boards have been meeting over recent weeks in an effort to approve savings which would reduce the deficits.

Frontline services

The BELB, which has an annual budget of about �200m, suspended its chief executive David Cargo two weeks ago as a "precautionary" measure which it stressed was not a "presumption of any guilt".

It issued a statement which said that the deficit was due to increased demands in special education, home to school transport, school deficits and job evaluation.

The SEELB, which has a budget of almost �220m, announced cuts in a number of areas including temporary and agency staff and the provision of transport services.

Mr Gardiner said he had insisted that both boards come up with action to contain the overspend.

He said: "We now have those proposals but it is clear that these will not be sufficient to guarantee that spending is brought within budget.

"I am also very concerned about the inevitable impact these proposals will have on frontline services.

"My officials will be discussing with both boards, ways of minimising this impact while meeting their financial responsibilities."