A waste of public money across a range of Government departments has been identified by the Comptroller and Auditor General, John Purcell, in his report for last year. The document makes for depressing reading. And it challenges a declaration by Minister for Finance Brian Cowen that value for money is now being secured and that the days of excessive costs and incompetent decision-making are behind us.
Particular and critical attention has been paid to the acquisition of a greenfield site in north Co Dublin for a new prison complex. Savings of about €15 million could have been made, Mr Purcell concludes, had the nature of the project and the State's interest not been revealed to the vendor. His finding will be particularly damaging to Tánaiste and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell who authorised the purchase and whose party has consistently advocated securing value for money and the promotion of public/private partnerships.
In coming to his conclusion, the C&AG agreed with the Office of Public Works that negotiations for the purchase of the land should have been conducted confidentially, through agents. This, he believed, would have halved the eventual purchase price of €29.9 million. But the Prison Service argued - and the department agreed - that such an approach could lead to allegations of political influence or corruption and possible difficulties with the landowner. And so, the State paid twice the going rate.
Elsewhere, there is criticism of the fact that contracts for the maintenance of Garda cars have not been opened up to competitive tendering, in spite of recommendations going back to 2002 and investigations into fraudulent practices. There is no excuse for such foot-dragging, given the sensitivity of the issue and the further damage that may be caused to the reputation of the Garda.
As in previous years, the Department of Health is criticised for inefficient administration. Once again, the overpayment of family doctors under the GMS scheme has become an issue. This time, the department paid GPs for treating 75,000 discretionary medical card patients, when the real figure could be as low as 45,000. Overpayments might account for €4 million. This lack of rigour and cost sensitivity was also reflected in the operations of other large spending departments where excessive overtime payments and poor project management drew critical comment.
The report represents a political windfall for the Opposition parties as they prepare for a general election campaign. The Dáil Committee of Public Accounts, the only one lacking a Government-appointed chairman, has responsibility for reviewing the report and for questioning Mr Purcell on his conclusions and department officials on their expensive blunders. In the circumstances, chairman Michael Noonan is likely to schedule hearings so their content will feed into a broader Opposition agenda emphasising public waste and a shortfall in political accountability.