MINISTER OF State Martin Mansergh has asked Stormont Finance Minister Nigel Dodds for a “loan” of an expert from the North’s Department of Finance.
The Northern expert will advise on achieving savings by departments and other public bodies, as part of a continuing review of procurement practices.
"I wrote to Nigel Dodds a few months ago (asking) if I could have loan of an expert from the Department of Finance and Personnel and he wrote back saying that we could," Dr Mansergh told BBC Northern Ireland's Hearts and Mindsprogramme last week.
Dr Mansergh, Minister of State for Finance with responsibility for the OPW, was asked to head up a review of procurement procedures in July last year.
The new National Public Procurement Operations Unit “will improve value for money outcomes from procurement through better purchasing and targeted savings”, according to the OPW.
On August 6th, 2008, Dr Mansergh wrote to Mr Dodds outlining his new responsibility and sought to invite the expertise of a particular employee of the Northern department’s central procurement directorate, according to an OPW spokesman.
The spokesman said Mr Dodds replied on September 8th, 2008, sanctioning the participation of the member of staff.
The spokesman said the move was not unusual. “We’ve always had a close working relationship with our counterparts in the North . . . It is our aim to learn from others and implement best practice.”
However, Brian Lucey, associate professor of finance at Trinity College Dublin, said the Government needed to start harnessing “local” talent.Prof Lucey said there was an “extraordinary dearth of qualified economists in the Civil Service” while Irish academia was an untapped resource.
“If the Government really wanted to show a signal it was open to advice, it would take every professor of economics and finance in the country and put them all in a room for a day to come up with ideas.”
Writing in this newspaper recently, former taoiseach Garrett FitzGerald claimed the number of economists working in the Department of Finance had fallen from 17 when he was Taoiseach to three a few years ago.
“The absence of an adequate number of qualified staff . . . is indefensible and has contributed significantly to our current economic difficulties,” he said.
Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan outlined the qualifications of his department staff in December last year, in response to a question from Labour’s Joan Burton.
“There are currently 57 officers who hold degrees in economics and related disciplines, 44 who hold a master’s qualification in economics and related disciplines, and one officer who holds a Ph,” Mr Lenihan said. “Some officers will, of course, be included in more than one of these categories.”
