Bord na gCon escapes censure over €5m spend

BORD na gCon escaped with a rap on the knuckles after a probe by the State’s spending watchdog into €5 million of spending.

The costs related to legal disputes and improperly sourced goods and services.

Comptroller and auditor general John Purcell found “deficiencies in systems and procedures”, but concluded that for the most part, the greyhound racing organisation’s funds were “properly applied”.

The probe began after a period of strife in the organisation, culminating in chief executive Aidan Tynan being sacked in January 2006, and the resignation of chairman Paschal Taggart six months later.

Mr Purcell found repeated incidents between 2000 and 2006 where tenders for goods and services were not properly conducted or where no tenders were invited at all, and where payments were made or works commenced without approval by the board.

One part of his investigation focused on the €12m redevelopment of Shelbourne Park in Dublin between 2000 and 2002. The then managing director was absent for much of this period due to illness, so control over the works fell to an overseer he had appointed without advertising the post or drawing up a contract.

The overseer double-jobbed as supplier of security services to the racetrack and he interfered in the tender process for the purchase of a generator, with the contract going to a company of which he was a director.

Mr Purcell said this involvement meant that for certain periods “control was neither being exercised by the organs of Born na gCon or Shelbourne Greyhound Stadium Ltd”.

He also highlighted an “unorthodox” system of paying security staff, interference with tenders for catering at the Tralee and Cork tracks which ran “counter to the principles underlying public procurement procedures,” and 32 legal actions relating to tender and personnel disputes that cost a total of €3.9m.

Mr Purcell acknowledged that Bord na gCon was undergoing rapid change at the time and attendances doubled and income increased six-fold from 1995 to 2005.

However, he also noted the organisation received €79m from betting tax and other exchequer funding between 2001 and 2006.

“The drive to enhance its product was not always matched by a governance regime designed to administer the organisation and its funds to optimum effect.”

Mr Taggart welcomed the comptroller’s acknowledgement of the achievements of Bord na gCon during his tenure and that the board acted to “address the shortcomings which came to its notice”. “His findings are an endorsement of both the board and the executive in the way we carried out our business,” his statement said.

Fine Gael spokeswoman on sports, Olivia Mitchell, said the report exposed “poor procedures and crazy carry-on”.

“Once again the taxpayers will be mystified as to how a semi-State body can be allowed to spend money chaotically when any business in the country would go to the wall if they handled their affairs the same way.”