DARD has received stinging criticism over its failure to pay a County Armagh dairy farmer his full claim under the FNMS for a slurry store and slats after initially approving it.
It also appears that there are a number of other farmers who similarly have not received their full grant payment.
Mountnorris dairy farmer Leslie Hamilton was first approved in November 2007 to build a tank covered by slats to the value of £60,000, and was to have it finished by December 2008.
He was one of the first farmers to have all his work completed as stipulated under the FNMS guidelines, but is angry at DARD for not paying him the full approved grant on his tank and slats.
Leslie said: "I was originally approved to build a tank and have it covered by slats for an actual material cost of £60,000 plus installation costs.
"The contractor commissioned with the job fell ill during the process and I had to then find slats myself to finish the job. In the end I paid the contractor £40,000 for the tank and I had to pay £20,000 for the slats, so the overall cost was still the same, so I thought nothing more about it."
However, he has since discovered that about £5,000 of his claim has been declared ineligible by DARD on the grounds he paid too much for his slats, resulting in a significant shortfall for him.
"My work was finished before the December deadline and all paperwork was subsequently submitted. To my horror DARD paid me a total of just over £45,000 shortchanging me around £3,300," he said.

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September 25th 2009
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