Last week, Belfast Live reported that the Independence Day concert, which was due to take place at Belfast City Hall, had been cancelled due to a failure to secure a headline act
The Department for Communities is scrambling to claw back up to £10,000 paid to the Ulster Scots Agency as an advance for their USA250 concert that had been scheduled to take place on 4th July at Belfast City Hall.
The USA250 concert, intended to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States Declaration of Independence, was completely abandoned last week after organisers admitted they failed to secure headline acts.
Back in January, Communities Minister Gordon Lyons announced a £30,000 public funding package for the event, promising a line-up of “high-profile acts” with US artists joining via video link.
Following a week of silence, the Department for Communities has now admitted that a £10,000 advance of taxpayer cash was paid out before the event collapsed.
The department also conceded that a portion of that public money has already been spent on “preparation” for the non-existent gig and cannot be recovered.
A spokesperson for the Department for Communities told Belfast Live : “Around £10,000 was allocated as an advance. We are engaging with the Ulster Scots Agency on the return of funding not expended on preparation for the event.”
The admission comes after a week of stonewalling from the department, which initially sought to distance itself from the fiasco.
Following Belfast Live’s initial coverage of the concert’s collapse last week, departmental officials contacted this publication requesting that reference to the Department for Communities be removed from the article.
Officials claimed the Ulster Scots Agency was solely responsible for the cancellation, despite Minister Lyons having personally fronted the original funding announcement.
Sinn Féin Communities spokesperson and chair of Stormont’s Communities Committee, Colm Gildernew MLA said that the Minister needs to ensure that all of the £30,000 that was allocated to the event is returned to the public purse.
“The Communities Minister has a track record of wasting public funds on his own pet projects,” he said.
“He wasted £5,500 on research on JD Vance’s genealogy in a failed attempt to prove an Ulster Scot’s connection.
“Not to mention spending over £60,000 in his department’s involvement in a legal challenge to Belfast City Council’s draft Irish Language Strategy.
“Now it’s confirmed that a concert to celebrate American Independence, which he has allocated £30,000 to the Ulster Scots Agency to organise, is not going to happen.
“The Minister needs to ensure that all of the £30,000 is returned to the public purse.
“He also needs to start putting his attention and limited departmental resources into issues that are priorities, such as building more homes and tackling poverty and disadvantage.”
When the cancellation was confirmed, a spokesperson for the Ulster Scots Agency stated that the event would not proceed due to “a number of factors, including availability of potential headline acts.”
Defending the wider programme, the DfC spokesperson added: “There is a wide range of other US-NI250 projects being delivered across the summer. More information is available at www.usa-ni250.co.uk ”
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