DR MICHAEL Somers, the former chief executive of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), sought to retire last March with immediate effect, one week after Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan asked him to devise contingency funding plans for the banking system.
In a letter dated March 11th, 2009, and marked “personal and confidential”, Dr Somers told Mr Lenihan he had served in the public service for more than 48 years, including 18 years as chief executive of the agency, and was “beyond normal retirement age”.
In the letter, released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act, he said his contract had expired on December 3rd, 2007, but was extended for three years to the end of 2010, subject to a review at the end of 2008.
Dr Somers said that no notice of his retirement was required, adding: “I therefore wish to submit to you my retirement on pension with immediate effect.
“I would like to thank you for the trust and confidence you have placed in the NTMA and in me personally and to wish you every success in the difficult period ahead,” Dr Somers added.
He concluded that if the Minister wished him to remain in “a non-pensionable capacity for a further period on terms to be agreed while you decide on a successor I would be happy to do so”.
Three lines were redacted by the Department of Finance as they contained personal information.
Dr Somers’s retirement from his post as NTMA chief executive was announced last month within days of the passing of legislation setting up the National Asset Management Agency (Nama).
He retired earlier this month and was replaced by NTMA director John Corrigan.
Dr Somers has been appointed deputy chairman of AIB.
A week before Dr Somers’s retirement letter, the Minister had asked him, in a letter dated March 4th, 2009, if the NTMA would “take steps to develop contingency plans for the provision of liquidity to the Irish banking system in the event of further liquidity pressures within that system”.
The Minister said the request was being made in addition to the “very important work being done in the NTMA in relation to advising me on the financial crisis and associated matters”.
The request came against a backdrop of concerns over the stability of the financial institutions.
Last May, when he appeared before the Committee of Public Accounts, Dr Somers criticised the mounting workload being imposed on the NTMA, which included advising on resolutions for the banking crisis and the operation of Nama.
“We are trying to keep the whole thing on the road and this is becoming increasingly challenging, particularly in the present environment where we are in a disaster scene the likes of which we have never seen before,” he told the committee.
A week previously, Mr Lenihan had directed the NTMA to advise him on the formation of Nama and to undertake all preparatory work to establish the agency.
He directed the NTMA to provide the necessary staffing and engage “expert advisers and consultants as necessary”.
In a reply to a letter sent by Dr Somers, which was not released by the department, the Minister said on November 6th, 2009, that he appreciated points made by the NTMA chief executive in relation to the resources needed for Nama.
“It is essential that the current resources assigned to the Nama project be considerably increased if it is to meet the deadlines and policy objectives set by the Government,” Mr Lenihan said.
“So I must ask you to move now to take the necessary steps to ensure that Nama can be established and its work commenced immediately on passage of the relevant legislation.”
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/VR3765MFOBH2NMV2QNICYDF67M.png)