The last few days have provided plenty of opportunities to reflect on the performance of this Government.

NO matter how many ways that you try to adapt candlelight it can’t be made into a light bulb.

It has emerged that €44m was spent on 12 sites which are now lying idle because decentralisation plans have been put on hold.

LAST year several high-ranking public employees were afforded the sanctuary offered by early retirement.

TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan was embroiled in an explosive row last night over the leaking of parts of confidential reports into financial controversies in Fás.

MARY HANAFIN denied the Government had “turned a blind eye” to social welfare fraud over the past decade.

MAYBE it’s because we so fervently want to believe there is commitment to improving how the public and civil services do the business of this country that we prick up our ears when union bosses acknowledge reform has to be part of the response to our difficulties.

FORMER Fás boss Rody Molloy refused to accept the findings of an internal audit report on overspending in 2007, complaining to the board of the agency that the investigation did not show “courtesy” to senior management.

TÁNAISTE Mary Coughlan has denied she was overruled by the Taoiseach on a decision to publicly express confidence in the Fás board following a recent report on the state agency by the spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).

THE Government has done nothing to clean up Fás according to the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which claimed its recommendations on improving accountability at the state training agency have been completely ignored.

THE principle of following the money trail has been one of the cornerstones of criminal investigations for many years. The principle of seizing criminals’ assets is a much more recent but nonetheless effective innovation.

A FRESH probe into FÁS finances is to be launched after allegations of mismanagement of public funds, it emerged last night.

THE Department of Social and Family Affairs discovered only last week that a laptop stolen 16 months ago contained information of more than 380,000 people entitled to social welfare payments.

DETAILS of staff working in a Government department were on the missing laptop at the centre of the latest data security scare.

EFFORTS by the tax authorities to verify that landlords are properly declaring rental income have been branded “haphazard and ineffective” by the Government’s financial watchdog.

THE Revenue Commissioners have defended the low level of customs inspections on Irish shoppers arriving from the US during the pre-Christmas period after it emerged less than 2% of passengers exceeded the duty limit.

INCREASING numbers of travellers using Irish airports have forced Revenue officers to boost their monitoring of passengers bringing personal items into the State.

THE Department of Social and Family Affairs failed to deduct tax from nearly 1,000 non-resident landlords receiving rent supplements because of IT and staff problems.

POOR communication between schools and the private companies that built them have led to delays improving services, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) annual report.

THE Department of Education’s annual bill for renting prefabricated classrooms has increased five-fold from €4 million to more than €24m in just six years, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report reveals.

A FURTHER delay in the introduction of the smart card system for public transport has been blamed for a cost overrun of €20 million, according to the CAG report.

GARDAÍ are investigating the disappearance of about €33,000 from two heritage sites, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reveals.

LARGE variations in the pass rates at different driver testing centres around the country still defy explanation, the public spending watchdog has complained.

LIVING quarters provided by the Defence Forces for serving members are under-used and sometimes abused, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) report has found.

THE 68 new consultant posts advertised yesterday as part of the Government’s plan to boost the number of hospital specialists are likely to take at least a year to fill.

A MAJOR increase in random tax audits was signalled by the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee yesterday as it expressed concern at the number of fraudsters currently slipping through the net.

WIDELY different practices, used by local health offices in calculating enhanced subventions for nursing home care, have been criticised in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG) annual report.

I REFER to the articles in the Irish Examiner headlined ‘Identity fraud: personal ID system is open to abuse’ and “When e is for error”, in addition to the editorial entitled ‘Department brought this one on itself’ (Irish Examiner August 21).

THE State’s financial watchdog yesterday publicly reprimanded a Government department for the way it allocated €10 million worth of grants.

KEY figures in charge of introducing PPARS did not know how far their authority stretched, with the result that important decisions were delayed or flawed.

The wasteful expenditure of taxpayers’ money has reached a new level with the current Government, it was claimed today.

The company running the Westlink toll bridge underpaid the state by €2m in toll revenue for two successive years, it emerged tonight.

THE Comptroller and Auditor General, John Purcell, has criticised management at Teagasc after it emerged an employee had claimed bogus travel expenses worth almost €80,000.

GARDAÍ have launched a criminal investigation into the awarding of a series of building contracts worth €3.3m by Beaumont Hospital between 1998 and 2001.

HEALTH boards took on 3,800 too many staff in one year in an open flouting of recruitment bans laid down by the Department of Health.

THE final bill to settle claims taken by child victims of institutional abuse could rise to a staggering €828 million, the Comptroller and Auditor General warned yesterday.

TENS of thousands of motorists have escaped penalty points while many more were not issued with a summons despite receiving a notice, the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report revealed yesterday.

The government's electronic voting project has come under fire in the annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

POOR cost planning and delays in implementing a major road improvements programme by the National Roads Authority have been blamed for an almost 200% increase to €15.6 billion in the cost of the project over a two-year period.

THE Department of Education has admitted it was unwise for former Minister for Education Michael Woods to promise principals, prior to the last general election, that schools would be built within a certain time period.

EVADING tax is one thing, but when evaders eventually get taxes written off because of shortcomings in the system operated