‘Problems’ with scrutiny of councils’ spending

THE State’s financial watchdog yesterday warned there is a “problem” with the way hundreds of millions of euro is poured into local authority projects without full scrutiny.

Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) John Purcell made the remarks as a powerful Dáil committee expressed concern it had received “incomplete assurances” from the Government on council audits.

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chairman Michael Noonan TD called for greater scrutiny of how local authorities spend their multi-billion euro budgets.

Mr Purcell said his role was restricted by legislation so he could probe very little of local expenditure unless it came in the form of major partnerships with bodies such as the National Roads Authority.

He told the committee: “I think there is a problem in that there is a lacuna (gap) in the accounts arrangements in capital expenditure from central Government administered by local authorities.”

The comments were heard by Finance Department secretary general Tom Considine, who had earlier indicated to the PAC that the Government’s flagship decentralisation initiative may have to be extended again.

Mr Considine admitted that “difficulties” with encouraging civil servants to sign up to the scheme may force a rethink.

“It may be the time frame for decentralisation will have to be amended to acknowledge there are difficulties,” he said.

Originally, the Government had planned for more than 10,000 public servants to have moved out of Dublin by next year.

The programme is now due to be completed in 2012.

Labour finance spokesperson Joan Burton TD warned that given the levels of opposition to the scheme, the State could end up paying the wages of 5,000 civil servants who refuse to relocate from the capital while employing an equal number working outside Dublin to duplicate their jobs.

Mr Considine also assured Ms Burton that the Finance Department had stringent procedures in place to prevent leaks to Fianna Fáil of confidential opposition spending plans costed by its experts.

Ms Burton expressed concern that politically motivated and “over-zealous” ministerial advisers may be accessing the information and called for more distance between civil servants and party appointees.

Labour and Fine Gael boycotted a meeting with Finance Minister Brian Cowen over the issue this week.