DUBLIN’S BEAUMONT Hospital has claimed it suffered losses of more than €400,000 as a result of an alleged conspiracy by a former technical services manager and others to forge tenders so as to ensure contracts were awarded to a particular building company, now in liquidation.
The hospital alleges Douglas Browne, Kiltipper Drive, Aylesbury Estate, Dublin 24, had conspired with AMS Construction Limited, in liquidation, with registered offices at Walkinstown, Dublin, and its directors and owners, Adrian Millar, Glenlyon Crescent, Knocklyon, Dublin, and Michael Shortt, Aylmer Park, Naas, Co Kildare, to falsify tenders resulting in the hospital losing about €413,324.
The defendants deny the claims. The case came before the Master of the High Court Edmund Honohan yesterday who made a number of discovery orders concerning the defendants’ bank statements and other documents.
It is alleged that, from 1997 to 2001, Mr Browne conspired with the other defendants to cause contracts to be awarded to AMS by preparing and submitting falsified or forged tenders on behalf of third parties. It claims Mr Browne personally benefited.
The hospital is claiming damages on grounds of alleged fraudulent misrepresentation, deceit, breach of trust and breach of contract and unjust enrichment.
The hospital claims it engaged Mr Browne as technical services manager in 1997. After he resigned following inquiries resulting from an internal audit, investigations revealed that Mr Browne had altered a certificate issued by the South African Council for Professional Engineers, the hospital said.
In an affidavit, Liam Duffy, chief executive of the hospital, said an examination of eight contracts awarded to AMS Construction Limited during the years 1999 to 2000 had disclosed that, in five cases, purported tenders were on file from entities that either did not exist or denied having submitted any tenders.
Mr Duffy said a review by an independent quantity surveyor of those eight contracts had indicated AMS had been paid some €400,000 more than the value of the works and an allowance for a reasonable profit margin.
In his defence, Mr Browne denies the claims and pleads they are statute barred. He admitted he had represented he was an engineer registered by the South African Council for Professional Engineers when this was not the case but denied this was done fraudulently or with intent to defraud.
He claims it was very difficult to interest building firms in working on small contracts and that the general manager was fully informed of the manner in which tenders were obtained.
In their defence, AMS and its directors deny the claims against them and deny they induced Mr Browne to act in breach of his contract.