Wastage costing taxpayers tens of millions

WASTAGE and overspending by Government departments are continuing to cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of euro despite the perilous state of the country’s finances.

The annual report of the public finances watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), shows that almost every department and office made savings in administration costs compared with previous years, but continued to squander money on ill-conceived projects and sloppy practices.

This news comes against a backdrop of plummeting tax intake that has seen gross revenues decline from €50.7 billion in 2009 to €47.6bn in 2010, and warnings of another severe budget when funds for public spending will be tighter than ever.

The C&AG also revealed that €3.6bn of the tax take was automatically diverted to service the national debt.

Examples of wastage cited in the audit include 52,603 instances where welfare recipients were overpaid last year, which cost the Department of Social Protection an unnecessary €83.4 million, only about 25% of which has been recovered.

A €23m Garda digital fingerprint system ran 18 months over time and €3m over budget, and is still not being fully utilised because many gardaí continue to take ink prints and civil servants refuse to operate it.

A data management system for the Central Statistics Office, which was budgeted to cost €10m, ended up costing €18m, ran 16 months late and is also not being fully used.

More than €75m in substantial state contracts awarded last year were never put out to tender, with the reasons why they received exemption from the normal competition rules not clear in many cases.

Meanwhile, the state is having to find money to pay for new items of expenditure such as the €46m in administration costs it took to run NAMA last year and the €73m it has paid to financial and legal consultants for advice on dealing with the banking crisis.

The head of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, John McGuinness, said the report’s findings were a cause for concern and that the deficiencies highlighted would be further investigated by the committee.

“With the drop in tax revenues, there is a greater than ever need to get a return from the taxpayers’ money that is invested by the state,” he said.

“A number of themes emerge from this report which suggest that the value for money return is not being delivered.”