The government could have raised £15m more from the sale of BelfastInternational Airport, according to the Northern Ireland Audit Office.
It criticises the Treasury for advising the Department of theEnvironment not to include a clawback clause on profits from any futureresale. In 1994, the airport was sold for £47.9m to a management team.They sold it onto TBI for £72.4m two years later.
The audit office said a clawback clause would have raised the governmentanother £11.6m. Stricter control over the airport’s capitalexpenditure in the period up to the initial privatisation would haveyielded another £4m.
- Financial Times 20/11/97 page 12
