A former finance director of the Manx Electricity Authority today said he didn't think sticking to budgets when building Pulrose Power Station was as important as finishing the building.

He was giving evidence to a select committee of Tynwald which is looking into the MEA and its ?120 million of unauthorised loans.

Clive Wilcox said he had been in overall charge of the MEA's finances, and the original ?185 million budget for the project had only been an estimate.

But he said stopping work after spending that sum wasn't an option if the power station still hadn’t been finished.

Jason Roberts reports (text, below, from attached audio file):

Mr Wilcox told the committee he thought the project had been a success because the authority had managed to build the power station and an undersea gas pipeline.

He added the measure of success wasn’t whether all the work had been done with the money approved by Tynwald, and the authority couldn’t have simply stopped halfway because the cash had run out.

On the subject of the ?120 million in unauthorised loans, he claimed they were only meant to be short term and would have been refinanced at a later date.

And he said although paying ?10 million a year in interest might seem a high figure, it was the cheapest option available.

The committee will hear more evidence from former board members in July.