Dail group to query awarding of PR contract

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee is to question Department of the Environment officials on the awarding of a public relations…

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee is to question Department of the Environment officials on the awarding of a public relations contract in 2002 to a political associate of the minister at the time, Mr Martin Cullen. Mark Brennock, Chief Political Correspondent, reports.

The chairman of the committee, Mr Michael Noonan, said yesterday that the committee would look at the matter in the early part of next year as part of its routine examination of Department spending.

He said the committee had already decided it wanted to ask questions about the cost of storing unused electronic voting machines. Therefore the Department of the Environment was likely to be called before the committee "earlier rather than later".

He said the amount of money involved in the contract was not large enough to justify calling a special meeting to discuss it, so the matter would be raised at the annual examination of the Department's spending.

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Mr Cullen said yesterday he would have "no issue" with moves to tighten the procedures used by Government Departments for awarding short-term contracts. Such contracts can currently be awarded without a tendering competition, if the need is considered to be urgent.

In July 2002, immediately after becoming minister for the environment, Mr Cullen suggested to senior Department officials that Ms Monica Leech be appointed as a communications specialist. She received a short-term contract and later won a tendering competition for a longer contract.

Ms Leech is one of Mr Cullen's political supporters in his Waterford constituency and has organised a number of fundraising events. Both Mr Cullen and his successor, Mr Dick Roche, have praised the quality of work she has done for the Department.

Asked yesterday if procedures should be revised to ensure those in a position to be recommended by someone within the system do not have an unfair advantage, Mr Cullen said that, if people in the permanent Government system found ways to improve procedures in relation to the awarding of short-term contracts, he would have "no issue" with this.

Speaking at a press conference he said he was "always happy and very conscious to make sure the procedures are absolutely followed . . . There are people in the heart of Government, in the permanent government system, that do look at these procedures and if they can be improved I have no issue with it at all". He said everything he did in relation to the initial short-term contract was done "with absolute transparency".