A government watchdog is expected to probe Invest Northern Ireland's "failure" to deliver jobs and investment to Derry it's emerged.
Sinn Fein believes that Auditor General John Dowdall is preparing an investigation after it was revealed that just 8 per cent of INI's overall investment was earmarked for the North's second city.
Foyle MLA Martina Anderson met with Mr Dowdall thi
s week to discuss INI's "abject failure" in the North West.
"No matter how Invest NI attempt to defend their record, the evidence we have uncovered paints a stark picture of their failings," she said.
"For instance, the relatively affluent constituency of South Belfast routinely receives more Invest NI-promoted jobs and projects than the combined total for the entire border corridor of Foyle, West Tyrone, Fermanagh and South Tyrone and Newry and Armagh.
"The six parliamentary constituencies West of the Bann receive only 26% of investment with Derry's share amounting to less than 8%," Ms Anderson said.
'Huge amounts'
A Sinn Fein investigation recently revealed that the body "spent huge amounts of public money" on renting empty buildings with lengthy leases.
"A staggering £500,000 was spent on renting an empty building at Campsie between 1992 and 2007 with another £500,000 expected to be spent over the next decade," Ms Anderson said.
She added that Invest NI was "unable" to answer several key questions on its performance despite being instructed to address them by a Public Accounts Committee report a decade ago.
Sinn Fein is due to submit a dossier on INI's "poor" performance to Mr Dowdall's office shortly.
Ms Anderson added: "The Auditor has already confirmed that he will probe a number of the concerns we have highlighted - such as the Campsie site."
The full article contains 295 words and appears in Journal Friday DER Edition newspaper.
