Report finds decentralisation contributed to €5m arrears in fishery harbours

Loss of corporate memory during the Government decentralisation programme in 2007 contributed to poor financial management of fishery harbour centres, a Comptroller and Auditor General report has found.

The arrears due to the centres at June 2013 amounted to just over €5 million, with a provision of about €3 million made for bad debts, the report says.

The €5 million outstanding was made up of 463 accounts, with a list of top 10 debtors responsible for just under €3 million (60 per cent) of the overall debt, the report says. One debt of €1.65 million related to harbour fees for passenger vessels, the report notes. The debtor successfully challenged the legality of the basis of the charge in the High Court in 2011, which the department has appealed to the Supreme Court.

The passenger vessel company has also sought costs and damages over detention of one of its vessels for the non-payment of centre dues, the report notes; €92,000 has been provided for the cost of settling this claim.

A lapse in invoicing for harbour dues occurred during transfer of responsibility for six harbour centres from the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to the Department of Agriculture and the Marine between 2007 and 2008.

About €1.2 million of harbour dues was billed retrospectively due to a “variety of weaknesses and errors”.