Bidding for Abbotstown contract delayed by document defects

Bidding for the contract to build Sports Campus Ireland was delayed for a month because of serious defects in the bid documents compiled by the State company promoting it, The Irish Times has confirmed.

According to limited files released by the Office of Public Works under the Freedom of Information Act, both the OPW and the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, prevented the issue of documents to competing consortiums until these defects were remedied.

The files also throw some light on why the OPW resigned as project manager for the sports campus at Abbotstown, Co Dublin, even though the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, believed it was the only body capable of delivering it within the tight time-frame.

But OPW chairman Mr Barry Murphy said it was "not prepared to report directly to Magahy and Co" - the consultancy firm headed by Ms Laura Magahy, which is providing executive services for Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd (CSID), the State company involved. In its new role as adviser to the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation, the OPW warned on March 9th that the outline bid documentation which CSID intended issuing three days later was "still in an unacceptably rough state and needs a fair deal of refinement".

Mr Sean Benton, the OPW commissioner in charge of State property, complained to Ms Magahy he had not been given adequate time to consider the matter. "I think it is unreasonable to invite comments and at the same time not give members an adequate time to respond."

Mr Benton, a CSID director, said: "Given the scale of the project, I would be extremely concerned if this documentation were to issue in advance of it being cleared by the board and by the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation."

Ms Margaret Hayes, the Department's secretary general, also told Ms Magahy that it was "most important that inadequacies in the outline bid documentation itself do not give rise to grounds for future action by disappointed bidders which . . . could seriously delay progress on the project".

In the light of advice from the OPW, she said the Department - which was given charge of the project on January 1st - "is regrettably not in a position to approve the documentation submitted . . . and advises that it not be distributed to potential bidders in its present form".

A week later, on March 16th, Ms Hayes told Ms Magahy: "You will note the OPW holds the view, which this Department endorses, that even at this late stage a comprehensive development brief incorporating the physical requirements of all end users be prepared by CSID."

The Department of Finance also insisted on the inclusion in the draft contract for Abbots town of "step-in rights" to replace the private company chosen to operate Stadium Ireland in any default or failure, so the Exchequer "would not be left high and dry". The files show that the outline bid documents were substantially amended as suggested by the OPW and others, including CSID board members. It was then resubmitted to the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation and sanctioned by the end of March.

The remaining issue which needed to be resolved before revised bid documents were issued on April 6th related to conflicts of interest and CSID's wish to retain "absolute discretion about whether its own advisers or consultants could also act for any of the bidders".

The OPW felt so strongly about this that it sought independent legal advice from William Fry, solicitors, with a view to devising a conflicts-of-interest clause to prohibit any of CSID's advisers or consultants acting for other parties on pain of disqualifying their bids.

This followed the disclosure that Thorburn Colquhoun, consulting engineers, who were advising CSID on transport, were also acting for the Rohcon-Waterworld consortium which won the contract to build the £50 million Aquatic and Leisure Centre at Abbotstown. Efforts to contact Ms Magahy yesterday were unsuccessful.