The man charged with ensuring that more than €50 billion in taxpayers' money is correctly and efficiently spent each year is a mild-mannered Dubliner with an archaic job title and a staff of 170.
John Purcell has been Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) since 1994, and late-night aficionados of the coverage of Dáil committees on Oireachtas Report will be familiar with his gravelly-voiced assessments on waste and overspending in the public service.
For many journalists, Purcell is an unsung hero, the guardian at the gate of public finances, someone who can be trusted to give the unvarnished facts on the latest financial cock-up.
Reticent by nature, Purcell generally shuns public attention, sticks to the numbers in his reports and avoids polemic, which is quite an achievement given the often shocking content of his reports. He rarely gives interviews but agreed to talk to The Irish Times for this series.
"My reports stand on their own merits," he says by way of explanation of his low profile. "I have a forum in my appearance at the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and it isn't appropriate for me to pre-empt these discussions."
Year in and year out, his reports turn up tales of mismanagement, overspending and even misappropriation of public funds. The C&AG's staff compiled the report on which the Public Accounts Committee based its groundbreaking investigation into the Dirt tax scandal. They also investigated the massive overspends on the Ppars project in the health services and on the State's roads infrastructure. "We are often accused of being negative, but I have to use the resources I have to make certain improvements. I wouldn't be thanked by anyone if I just said 'this or this is working well'."
The C&AG's position is provided for in the Constitution and legislation governing the auditing of public money dates back to Victorian times - other former British colonies such as South Africa and Australia have similar positions. Unfortunately, some of the laws regulating this area are just as old.
As well as his annual report, which audits the spending of 380 accounts, from the multibillion HSE budget to small county enterprise boards, Purcell produces regular value-for-money reports.
Given the size of government spending it isn't possible to investigate all areas of the budget, so his staff focus their efforts on areas of large spending where problems have arisen or on issues that have attracted media coverage.
At times it can seem to an observer that the C&AG is engaged in a version of Groundhog Day as he reports to the committee on yet another spending scandal. However, Purcell insists his reports are followed up and changes made to ensure the problem does not recur. The PAC draws up its own report in response to his and this goes to the Department of Finance, which is charged with co-ordinating the changes that are needed.
Things do change, he says. Following his investigation of the public roads programme, which was supposed to cost €5 billion but ended up costing €20 billion, new contracts were introduced to ensure the risks for overspending were transferred from the State to contractors.
Fixed-price contracts were introduced following the Ppars scandal, in a bid to better control costs, and the fees paid to professionals are being monitored more closely.
If this all sounds like the stable door being closed after the horse has bolted, it can't really be laid at the door of the C&AG. The politicians who make decisions come and go, and often their decisions are inspired by the need to garner votes. The public service is left to implement these decisions and, long after, Purcell's staff get to sift through the financial debris.
For example, when the government announced it was giving medical cards to all over-70s, the measure ended up costing three times the original estimate. An earlier decision to give pensions to people who paid pension contributions before 1953 was supposed to cost €9 million and ended up costing €135 million a year. "I don't believe anyone was trying to pull the wool over people's eyes. They just didn't know how many medical cards or pension claimants were out there."
Another problem is "lowballing" by contractors, when artificially low estimates are submitted purely to win a contract. Once the competitors are out of the way, the costs start to rise and the State has little option but to pay up.
For all the mismanagement, there are few instances of outright corruption and Purcell says he has no evidence that kickbacks are being paid in return for State contracts.
He pays tribute to the ethos of public servants but says a lot more can be done to improve things, such as more and better information on costs to inform decision-making.
Purcell calls for better management of underperformance in public services: "I'm not saying the Civil Service is underperforming as a whole, but there is a rump there as in all organisations and ways have to be found to deal with this." Talk of a greater customer focus needs to become a reality and not just a mantra, he adds.
For many, the missing element in the State's auditing processes is adequate sanctions for mismanagement. Purcell was once visited by an equivalent from a developing country who inquired how many officials were in jail as a result of his investigations and how many had been shot.
This might be a bit extreme, but in Ireland heads seldom roll, people are hardly ever fired and no one ever goes to jail. Purcell, however, doesn't believe we are any softer on the causes of waste than we are on waste itself.
"In many cases, the public berating of the people involved in controversies is punishment enough, I believe."