It is striking that our new district council structures, which were designed to provide significant savings for long-suffering ratepayers, have ended up with first year staff charges which are £11m more than was previously the case.
The wide-ranging review of public administration which reduced the number of local authorities across Northern Ireland from 26 to 11, was intended to establish stream-lined civic services which would result in economies of scale across the board.
However, as our coverage on Saturday and today reveals, the staff bill has actually risen from £341m in the previous 12 months to £352m during the first year of what are referred to as the super-councils.
Much of the increase is down to amendments over planning arrangements, involving the transfer of employees from central government, but, as the MLA Ross Hussey who raised the issue has pointed out, it is surprising that we have been left forking out a further £11m as a result.
While the communities minister Paul Givan had insisted that the figures have yet to be fully audited, and are complicated by boundary changes, the message they send out is alarming.
An enormous overhaul was introduced with the specific objective of achieving a more efficient and less expensive set-up and yet somehow its first year has pushed spending in the wrong direction.
It is reminiscent, albeit on a lower scale, of the sweeping claims which Brexit campaigners made about EU finances, only to admit, conveniently after the result of the referendum was announced, that they had made basic factual errors.
There is still an opportunity for our new councils to demonstrate a value for money approach to their range of responsibilities but they have got off to a disappointing start.
