Fewer than half the recommendations of a public inquiry into a financial scandal that collapsed the Stormont institutions have been fully implemented, according to an oversight body.
The 2020 inquiry into the botched green energy scheme made 44 recommendations but only 18 have been completed due to delays caused by the pandemic, the Northern Ireland Audit Office said.
And despite the fact that the inquiry was highly critical of the poorly designed, over generous and badly run government incentive scheme, only one civil servant has been disciplined.
"The seriousness of the issues that were discussed during the RHI inquiry would have led most people to believe that significant disciplinary consequences would have arisen from it and in that context it seems surprising that only one individual has received a written warning for misconduct," said head of the Audit Office Kieran Donnelly.
But he said he was satisfied that the disciplinary process had been properly followed.
The Renewable Heat Incentive scheme paid businesses to install heating systems fuelled by wood pellets.
The idea was to encourage a switch away from fossil fuel systems.
Hundreds of firms took it up, some installing multiple boilers.
But the subsidy was mistakenly set higher than the cost of fuel meaning the more the boilers were used the more cash could be collected.
It saw some businesses awarded substantial six figure sums in subsidy paid from the public purse.
The political fallout from the scandal saw Sinn Féin withdraw from government collapsing the Stormont institutions between 2017 and 2020.
Only drastic cuts to subsidy rates prevented a massive overspend and a public inquiry was ordered amidst allegations of political cronyism.
The inquiry found no evidence of wrongdoing but was highly critical of the design, implementation and monitoring of the scheme.
It made 44 recommendations many of them about the way policy was developed at Stormont.
The NI Audit Office was given the job of overseeing their implementation and reported on progress today.
Eighteen of the recommendations have been implemented and there are plans in place for many of the others, but in several cases insufficient action has been taken to address the inquiry's concerns, the audit office said.
Eleven civil servants were recommended for disciplinary action by a panel of external experts.
But after a disciplinary process just one got a written warning for misconduct.
