More than £900,000 of funding set aside for drugs awareness programmes in Northern Ireland could be lost by the North's administration due to a dispute over the alleged refusal by the Sinn Fein Minister of Health, Ms Bairbre de Brun, to work with RUC officers on a drug strategy committee.
A Department of Health spokesman said the drugs portfolio had yet to be handed out and new structures were needed.
Mr Gary McMichael, leader of the Ulster Democratic Party, made the claim yesterday and said he intended to meet the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, to ask whether Executive ministers would be permitted to allow party politics interfere with their departmental work.
"I will ask David Trimble to take responsibility for the implementation of the strategy himself, to give it the level of profile it deserves and also circumvent the political obstruction of the fight against drugs that de Brun has created," said Mr McMichael.
In a joint statement last night, Mr Trimble and the Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, said they recognised the responsibility to tackle the problem of drugs stretched across many departments, the Executive and the Northern Ireland Office.
"The question of the machinery to co-ordinate the fight against drugs will be a priority at next Tuesday's Executive committee meeting. A further statement will be made following that meeting. In the meantime, officials have been tasked with urgently examining any shortcomings in current arrangements," they said.
It is understood that following devolution in December, Ms de Brun was expected to take over the position of chair of the central co-ordinating committee for action against drugs from Mr Adam Ingram. An RUC Assistant Chief Constable sits on the interagency body, along with health board officials and addiction workers.
Addiction project workers fear that the funding, the first allocation of a £5.5 million anti-drugs package, could be lost because it must be allocated by a deadline of March 31st this year.
Ms Iris Robinson, of the DUP, raised the issue at yesterday's closed session of the Assembly health committee. She said she wanted to know why Ms de Brun had not acted on any applications from projects waiting for funding.