Economic Crisis

Litany of Waste, Poor Policy and Misuse of Public Money Highlighted in PAC Annual Report

Committee Calls for More Powers to Avoid Becoming “watchdog that doesn’t bite”


10TH June 2010

There are still far too many Government Departments and State bodies failing to employ sensible procedures when it comes to spending tax payers’ money resulting in the needless squandering of significant sums, the Annual Report of the D il Public Accounts Committee has found.

The Committee has also asked to be granted enhanced powers for its upcoming session in order to enable to properly carry out its planned investigations into the DDDA and the banking sector. (Attached letter to Minister for Finance)

Published today, the report covers the work of the Committee from October 2008 and July 2009 when the Committee met in public session on twenty-nine occasions. It underlines a series of key findings and recommendations relating to the wide range of agencies that have come before the Committee and aims to achieve better value for money and accountability from these bodies.

Committee Chairman, Bernard Allen TD said;
“Unfortunately, on too many occasions during this period, the Committee has come across shoddy standards and careless management of the State’s resources across a number of bodies. Despite some high profile examples there are still instances of organisations failing to adhere to prudent administration and decision making when it comes to their finances.

Among some of the key recommendations contained in the report are:

The Department of Finance must have the authority to procure specialist services to fill gaps at senior levels.
Following €118 million of tax write-off in 2007, the Revenue Commissioners should re-audit previously non compliant tax payers.
The Garda Siochana needs to modernise its purchasing system for vehicles to avoid a repeat of the situation whereby 308 cars were left unused in storage for over a year.
Because the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment wrote off €2.5 million in uncollectible debt in 2008, it should conduct a proper analysis of the redundancy payment scheme.
The Department of Defence should cease the payment of border allowances to soldiers where the performance of such duties is no longer relevant. Approximately 1,000 military personnel are in receipt of this payment.
Investments in IT and procurement practices must be tightened up across the public sector.

Bernard Allen said;
“The economic downturn which saw unemployment rise, tax revenue collapse and the banking crisis all happened during this period. It also saw the first cutbacks in public service expenditure. The focus of this Committee’s work is to ensure that expenditure is directed towards essential rather than desirable services.

The job of the Public Accounts Committee is to ensure that Government Departments and State agencies have the correct systems, procedures and practices in place to make certain that every cent is properly accounted for. Unfortunately, our findings highlight that the public service has a good way to go before it can satisfy this responsibility.

Our Committee has already shown its effectiveness in its dealing with F S. The key recommendations we made concerning the agency were subsequently implemented in legislation and we believe the conclusions in this body of work can have the same good effect.”

The Committee also expressed the need for it to be granted additional powers and entitlements in order to allow it to properly look into important upcoming matters such as the DDDA and the banking sector.

Bernard Allen said;
“The Committee has some extremely important work coming up and we are seeking further powers to avoid being hampered in our work. We are looking for the authority to compel witnesses to attend and insist that former officials attend meetings. We want the Committee to be able to fire on all cylinders and don’t want to be a watchdog that can’t bite.”

The report will be sent to the Minister for Finance for his consideration.

A full copy of the report is available at www.oireachtas.ie