ALMOST €15 million was paid by the Government and State bodies to legal, financial and property advisers for services in relation to “stabilising the banking sector” up to the end of June, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has found.
In his annual report, published yesterday, John Buckley said this included a €7.3 million contract – which was awarded without a competitive tender process – between the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) and Merrill Lynch for financial advice.
The NTMA told the CAG that time constraints last September, when the financial crisis broke, “did not permit a full tender process as there were only a limited number of potential advisers and these were also being sought by the Irish banks”.
The report found the Department of Finance had paid €3.9 million to Dublin-based Arthur Cox Solicitors by the end of May this year, while the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority had paid €2.95 million to PricewaterhouseCoopers and €840,000 to Jones Lang LaSalle.
They were employed for financial and property consultancy services relating to the bank guarantee scheme and recapitalisation.
In his report, Mr Buckley raised concern about overspending and waste of public funds in a number of areas, singling out the Government’s ill-fated e-voting scheme for renewed criticism.
The report revealed the e-voting machines had cost the State €54.4 million up to the time it was decided “significant additional costs” associated with continuing the project could not be supported. Even though the scheme has been scrapped, the taxpayer was liable for leasing storage for some of the machines until 2029.
On health, the CAG found maintenance charges of €164 million owed by private health insurers to the Health Service Executive and voluntary hospitals was outstanding at the end of last year. The report said the low rate of income recovery from patients treated privately in the 24 hospitals reviewed “would suggest that the State is facilitating private medicine without getting the related income for the service it provides”.
About half of private patients were not charged for their accommodation, the CAG said.
The report found the Revenue Commissioners wrote off €129 million in unpaid taxes and PRSI last year, up almost 10 per cent on 2007. Most of the money was written off in relation to struggling or insolvent businesses.
The report also questioned the value for money of the Money Advice and Budgeting Service. It saw an average of fewer than two clients a week in 2008, at a cost of €16 million, according to the CAG.
