The Auditor General is expected to criticise Invest NI over the investment body's record in the North West, a Foyle assemblywoman has revealed.

Sinn Féin MLA Martina Anderson met with the Auditor General this week in relation to her party's ongoing investigation into the allaged failure of Invest NI to deliver across Londonderry.

"Last year, I revealed how Invest NI had paid a quarter of a million pounds in public money to rent an empty building on the outskirts of Derry since 2002," said Ms Anderson.

"In the previous 10 years, Invest NI's predecessor - the IDB - paid a quarter of a million pounds to rent the same empty building. That's half-a-million pounds of public money already squandered."

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She said her investigations found Invest NI holds a lease on this empty building, which runs until 2017.

The MLA claims will see it pay out £45,000 per year for the next decade - regardless of the fact that this unit is lying empty.

"Under current circumstances, by the end of the 25-year contract, Invest NI will have paid total rent of one million pounds for an empty building."

Describing the action as a "scandalous waste of public funds", Ms Anderson also said it "speaks volumes" about the investment body's "lack of commitment" to the area by failing to find a tenant for a major business unit in Derry over a 17-year period, while paying the landlord from public funds.

She said the Auditor General is now finalising his report into the matter.

"I fully expect that report to strongly criticize Invest NI and to make recommendations for reform of its estate strategy," added the MLA.

(PR/KMcA)