Minister for Culture Patrick O’Donovan was admonished by Department of Public Expenditure officials for bringing “substantial expenditure” issues such as the failed Arts Council IT project to Cabinet without sharing details with colleagues in advance.
A senior official in Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers’s department complained that, under Government procedures, such important policy issues should be flagged and seen “well before” these are considered by Ministers.
Marianne Cassidy, an assistant secretary at the department, said this was the second time Mr O’Donovan brought a major item to Cabinet “under the arm”, meaning it was not shared in advance with other colleagues.
The abandoned project, which led to more than €5.3 million being written off by the State, first came to light in February when Mr O’Donovan brought a memo on the matter to Cabinet. He was only weeks into his new role as a senior minister, and it soon emerged that his predecessor, Catherine Martin, was aware of the matter since summer last year.
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Minister admonished for bringing ‘substantial’ issues to Cabinet without telling colleagues
The Department of Public Expenditure became aware of Mr O’Donovan’s intention to bring the issue to Cabinet five days before this occurred. On Friday, February 7th, Ms Cassidy wrote to the Department of Culture to say her team understood Mr O’Donovan’s memo “will bring serious issues to the attention of Government”.
She said the Department of Public Expenditure still had not seen the memo or been made aware of its detail, despite it appearing that these issues had been under consideration by the Department of Culture “for a while”.
“As a result, it will not be possible to consider them and advise our Minister in relation to them,” said the letter, released under Freedom of Information laws.
The letter noted Mr O’Donovan’s proposal to spend €10 million bringing an NFL American football game to Croke Park in September had also gone to Cabinet that same week “under the arm”.
It said this practice “makes it very difficult for this department, and indeed for Government generally, to thoroughly and properly consider issues and their implications, particularly regarding substantial expenditure implications and serious governance issues”.
“This Department should be allowed time, in compliance with government procedures, to properly scrutinise important policy issues ... well before they are table [sic] for consideration by Government,” it said.
The Office of the Government Chief Information Officer at the Department of Public Expenditure had been liaising with the Arts Council throughout the project. At one point, this office had raised concerns that a key person involved in the project seemed to have “little to no relevant expertise in this particular area”.
In a statement, Mr O’Donovan’s department said in the case of the NFL and the Arts Council issues “there were time pressures involved which required the issues to be brought to Government at short notice”.
Codec, the international IT company, has confirmed to The Irish Times it is one of four contractors now facing legal action initiated by the Arts Council over the botched project, which led to €6.75 million being spent on a new grant processing system that never materialised.
The firm has strongly rejected an Arts Council briefing paper, shared under Freedom of Information laws, that alleged Codec did “substandard” work on the project and was “difficult” to engage with.
Codec, one of the main contractors, has defended its work on the project. It said it “fully delivered” on the scope and deliverables and built a system that was “high quality, fully functioning according to spec”.
“Codec denies that it has any liability to the Arts Council for any alleged losses which the Arts Council claims it may have suffered,” the company said. It said it has received a notice of intent from the Arts Council to commence arbitration and has confirmed its intention to participate.
“Despite several requests, the Arts Council has been unwilling to provide Codec with the report prepared by an auditor examining the project on its behalf,” it also said.
An Arts Council spokeswoman said it has “commenced proceedings against two companies and we are in pre-action stage with two further companies”.
