Government fined for lost documents

Lesson learned: Regional Director of the Government Office North West (Liz Meek) says efforts are being made to ensure it doesnt happen again

The North West Government has been fined a staggering £16M for lost documents and badly filed paperwork.

An audit by the European Commission shows a string of serious errors made by civil servants over the past decade.

The North West region will cough up twice as much as the North East, whose bill is £8M.

Experts fear the hefty fine will lead to cash being taken from other projects such as regeneration, but Liz Meek, Regional Director for the Government Office North West, insists the bill has been “budgeted for”.

Speaking to Rochdale Online News, she said: “We have known for some time that these fines were coming and we have budgeted for them; there will be no cash diverted from any other projects”.

Mrs Meek admitted the mistakes were preventable.

She added: The errors include paperwork which has been misplaced, or documents which have been lost over the past decade. We know we could have prevented this and we have learned our lesson in how to deal with such matters”.

When asked why the North West region is twice as much as the North East, she said: “We are aware there is a lot more in the North West but this was initially going to be around £100M, and we have managed to whittle it down to £16M”.