A working group set up to consider a Stormont report on tackling flags disputes failed to meet for more than five months.
The long-delayed study by the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition (FICT) was published in December without an action plan to implement any of its findings.
The first and deputy first minsters' office last year established a working group led by the DUP and Sinn Féin's Junior Ministers to discuss progressing the report.
The working group met on just three occasions in 2021 - March 18, April 15 and July 28.
After a more than five-month gap the group met again on January 10 this year, according to the Executive Office.
Around 45 recommendations were contained in the 168-page FICT report, which cost the public around £800,000.
But the commission failed to find consensus on many of the flags and cultural issues it was established to address.
The report was released 16 months after it was completed and more than five years after the commission was launched.
Its publication was delayed as the Executive Office attempted to agree an action plan on implementing its recommendations, but no deal was reached.
The working group comprises of DUP Junior Minister Gary Middleton, Sinn Féin Junior Minister Declan Kearney and senior Executive Office officials.
SDLP MLA Sinéad McLaughlin, chair of the Executive Office scrutiny committee, said the lack of working group meetings was "typical of the way the FICT report and its publication has been mishandled".
She said: "You would expect them to be working on proposals to implement the recommendations, but it appears more and more likely that the FICT report is set to an expensive misadventure that is destined to gather dust in the Assembly library."
The co-chairs of FICT, Dr Dominic Bryan and Neville Armstrong, are due to appear before the Assembly committee on Wednesday.
Ms McLaughlin said: "The FICT report cost around £800,000 and was a genuine attempt to address some of the problems that plague our society in the north.
"It cannot be allowed to fall by the wayside as yet another casualty of the DUP and Sinn Féin's failure to govern this place effectively."
The commission was unable to agree on changing legislation around the flying of flags from lampposts. There was also no agreement about flags on public buildings.
On bonfires, the report recommended that wood for pyres should be made exempt from being classified as controlled waste.
It was hoped this proposal would mean landowners could set their own conditions to ensure bonfires are safe and inoffensive.
There was also no agreement on ideas discussed around commemorations, such as a collective "day of reflection" for everyone who suffered during the Troubles.
FICT was formed in June 2016 following the Fresh Start Agreement.
It was meant to report back within 18 months but it was suspended after power-sharing collapsed in 2017 following the RHI scandal. The report was eventually completed in July 2020.
The commission, which included political and non-political appointees, consulted with more than 1,000 people over the course of 162 meetings.
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