“We learned after Covid that the way we operated in the past could change. We developed more responsive programs.
“As we have transitioned from a pandemic and emergency way of working and back to business as usual, we wanted to bring more of these practices.
“This has led to a change in emphasis and focus on some of the programs that we've been running, in some cases, for many years. And in that process it hasn't been fully leveraged as we would have liked.”
Last year, Sport NI achieved only 53% of its Business Plan targets, with the business plan delayed by six months instead of being approved before the start of the new financial year.
In addition, he is currently working through arrears on outstanding National Lottery accounts. The last audit of accounts certified by the Comptroller and Auditor General were those for 2015-6.
“There was a period 10 years ago where there was an outstanding balance that built up in both the Lottery accounts and our Fund,” explained Archibald.
“It is difficult because the lottery accounts have to go through both the Northern Ireland Audit Office and the National Audit Office – but we had the 2015-6 accounts tabled in Parliament in September and are due to complete three more sets of accounts by end of March. We make a huge effort to update them.
“The focus for us now is on leadership – and a lot of effort has gone into that over the last couple of years to ensure that's the case, without disrupting our support to governing bodies, sports clubs and making sure we have enough resources to access and providing more money for more sports'.