Published Wednesday, 19 May 2010
Alliance MLA Trevor Lunn, who obtained the information following a question to the First and Deputy First Ministers' office, says every day the site is left unused Northern Ireland's economy is losing out.
Controversial plans to turn the 360 acre site into a new multi-sports stadium were scrapped last year by the then-sports minister, who said they didn't enjoy sufficient political consensus.
The site has now been cleared while the high steel walls and barbed wire, which surrounded the Maze prison, have been replaced by railings.
It is understood that over £3.5m spent on consultancy fees are included in the £12.5m figure.
Mr Lunn says he does not know where the rest of the money has been used.
"I think it's just an accumulation of different items over a period of years but my main concern is the lack of product.
"In April last year we were told a new body - the Maze Development Corporation - was being set up by the First and Deputy First Ministers' Office," Mr Lunn indicated.
"But now that body, according to the answer to one of my questions, has not yet been formed - 13 months on. I want them to get on with it."
SDLP Equality Spokesperson Dolores Kelly has said the millions of pounds of taxpayers' money, which have been wasted on the Maze site, is the DUP's and Sinn Fein's biggest failure to date.
The Upper Bann MLA said: "The Maze site could have been a hub for job creation, nursing our ill local construction industry back to health and boosting employment in the service industry, but rather than capitalising upon this opportunity for economic growth, Sinn Fein and the DUP have let it waste away."
But the DUP insists the Maze Development Corporation is about to be formed and the money spent so far was required to prepare the site.
"I believe the establishment of the development corporation will give the project the momentum it needs", Lagan Valley DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson told UTV.
"The money will be well spent if the project moves forward and I believe it will now. Hopefully we can see the progress the local community expects."
Controversy has raged about preserving part of the site as a museum and opening a conflict resolution centre.
Sinn Fein has rejected unionist fears that it wants to turn the former prison into a republican shrine.
"Sinn Fein is in favour of this development. We have said from day one that the Long Kesh site should be developed. It has enormous potential", John O'Dowd said.
"So the question needs to be put to the DUP - why are you standing against one of the most major economic potentials in the north?"
The Maze was once one of the most famous prisons in the world.
Its cells held republican and loyalist prisoners. It witnessed blanket protests and hunger strikes in 1981 when 10 men, including Bobby Sands, died.
The Good Friday Agreement prisoners were released after the peace deal was signed in 1998, and the Maze was closed in 2000.
"For the DUP, the problem is that the Maze prison was long associated with the IRA during the 40 year of the Troubles. For Republicans, it has an iconic status," political historian Eamonn Phoenix explains.
"It's how the sensitivities are actually dealt with... It's how both sides of the communities and the victims on both sides are allowed to have an input into this. I think that's the challenge", Mr Phoenix told UTV.