The Office of Public Works (OPW) is to review “fatally flawed” systems for signing off on spending decisions in the wake of controversy stemming from the €336,000 Leinster House bike shed.
Senior officials from the OPW met on Monday with the Oireachtas Commission, the body responsible for running Leinster House, including the complex of buildings the parliament operates from.
Speaking after the meeting Ceann Comhairle Seán Ó Fearghaíl, who is chair of the commission, said the OPW had described a “fatally flawed” system which allows a civil servant employed at principal officer level to sign off on up to €500,000 worth of spending.
Speaking privately after the meeting, commission members were of the view that notwithstanding the appearance from the OPW, many questions remain about controls, sign-offs and governance.
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“They have a system where a principal officer can sign off on projects up to €500,000 without that needing to be countersigned,” Mr Ó Fearghaíl said on Monday. He said that mistakes and poor decision-making around the project had “emanated from within the OPW”.
“There is an acceptance on that from the OPW, and I would have felt today a willingness to put better control systems in place,” he said, adding that the body had told the commission these sign-off procedures would be reviewed.
[ Bike shed a ‘profound embarrassment’, Ceann Comhairle tells DáilOpens in new window ]
“They could say with hand on heart they had followed protocol and procedures, and they had, but the problem was with the protocol and procedures,” the Ceann Comhairle said. “They were operating a fatally flawed system.”
Sources present at the meeting said the OPW had outlined that there was an overarching framework with contractors for ongoing maintenance and small projects, but that for individual spending under €500,000 there was no value-for-money evaluation. One commission member described themselves as “shocked” over the oversight of approvals for spending of up to €500,000.
Members of the commission are said to have made clear their annoyance that the blame for the saga was landing with elected politicians who they said had no role in approving the spend.
“The problem here is that there’s irreparable damage done by this thing,” Mr Ó Fearghaíl said, adding that the bike shed would be seen for “decades to come ... as a monument to institutional profligacy”.
A spokesman for the OPW confirmed a meeting was held with the Oireachtas Commission but added: “We have no further comment to make at this stage.”
The body is to be asked to appear before the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee in public in relation to the controversy on October 10th.
