The Office of Public Works (OPW) was so concerned about a conflict of interest involving the aquatic centre at Abbotstown, Co Dublin, that it insisted on bid documentation for the overall sports campus project being amended to eliminate any repetition of the situation.

Campus and Stadium Ireland Development Ltd (CSID), the company in charge of the project, had sought to retain "absolute discretion" over whether its own advisers or consultants could also act for any of the bidders for the Abbotstown contract.

But the OPW felt so strongly about this issue that it sought legal advice from solicitors William Fry with a view to devising a conflicts of interest clause that would prohibit any of these consultants acting for other parties on pain of disqualifying their bids.

This followed the disclosure that consulting engineers, Thorburn Colquhoun, which was advising CSID on transportation issues, was also acting for the Rohcon-Waterworld consortium which won the contract to build the €63 million aquatic centre.

Thorburn Colquhoun was among the team of specialists assembled by Magahy and Company in September, 2000, after it had won the consultancy contract to provide CSID with a range of executive services for 2 per cent of the overall project cost.

At the same time, the consulting engineers were among the team of experts advising the Rohcon-Waterworld consortium on its bid for the aquatic centre contract. It was only later, after it won the bid, that Thorburn Colquhoun resigned as CSID's advisers.

The aquatic centre was not among the facilities originally envisaged for Abbotstown. It was added by the Government in July, 2000, so that Ireland could stage the Special Olympics next June. The estimated cost to the Exchequer was €38 million.

This level of exposure was based on advice from PricewaterhouseCoopers, which had carried out feasibility studies for the sports campus project, that a contribution ranging between €18 million and €36 million could be anticipated from the successful bidder.

In the event, the amount actually offered by Rohcon-Waterworld was just €635,000, or 1 per cent of the capital cost.

Under a project agreement signed in January with CSID, the consortium will only make its contribution when the lease is signed.

It is understood that the decision to award the contract to Rohcon-Waterworld in December, 2000, was taken by an assessment panel headed by Mr Paddy Teahon, CSID's chairman, along with Ms Laura Magahy, chief executive of Magahy and Company.

Others involved in this panel were: Ms Una Carmody, one of Ms Magahy's associates; Mr Kevin Kelly, a solicitor with McCann Fitzgerald; and two OPW personnel, Mr Sean Benton, one of its commissioners; and Mr Kevin Connolly, head of special projects.

The OPW's remit was to examine the design and build aspects of each bid.

The financial arrangements were a matter for PricewaterhouseCoopers, which was also represented on the panel, as was quantity surveyor, Seamus Monahan and Partners.Apart from design issues, the bottom line was the level of Exchequer exposure - and in this case the Rohcon-Waterworld bid was much lower than the rival bids from consortia involving Bovis and Sisk's, even though they were offering more money up front.

In March, 2001, less than three months after the contract was awarded, the OPW resigned as project manager for Sports Campus Ireland to take a more backseat role as adviser on Abbotstown to the Department of Tourism, Sport and Recreation.

Documentation obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows that the OPW's chairman, Mr Barry Murphy, was "not prepared to report directly to Magahy and Co".

In other words, the OPW wanted to be in the driving seat for this major project.

The Department of Finance also insisted on the inclusion of "step-in rights" to replace the private consortium chosen to operate Stadium Ireland in the event of any default or failure, so that the Exchequer "would not be left high and dry".

No director of Dublin-based Thorburn Colquhoun - which has since been renamed as URS Ireland Ltd - was available yesterday to comment on its involvement in the Abbotstown affair.