Call for extra funds to monitor NAMA

THE Government has been urged to provide extra funding for the state spending watchdog so that it can adequately monitor NAMA (National Asset Management Agency).

The powerful Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has written to Finance Minister Brian Lenihan requesting that the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) be “adequately resourced”.

The letter requests the Department of Finance to give priority to the approval in 2010 of “sufficient, suitably qualified audit staff and any necessary consultancy budget so as to enable the C&AG to undertake the extra work assigned to his office under the NAMA legislation”.

The letter & was sent on December 10 by Public Accounts Committee chairman Bernard Allen& who said its purpose was to urge the Department of Finance “to fully resource the office of the C&AG to cope with the extra workload thrown up” by NAMA.

Separately, the committee plans to investigate the failure of the financial regulatory system in the coming months.

The C&AG is preparing a special report on what went wrong with the regulatory system, which will be considered by the committee once finished. The committee will be able to request people to attend hearings to explore the issues raised in the report.

Mr Allen said this would be a “starting point” in examining what went wrong in the banking sector.

But he reiterated that the committee would be unable to carry out the kind of comprehensive inquiry advocated by Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan unless its powers were increased by a combination of legislation and referendum.

While the committee can request people appear before it, it cannot compel them to do so, meaning the banks could refuse invitations to give evidence. In addition, because of a Supreme Court judgment, the committee cannot make adverse findings against individuals.

“In order to carry out [a comprehensive inquiry], the committee would need strong terms of reference which would require legislation in order to compel witnesses to attend and secure the release of documents,” Mr Allen said. “In order to issue findings pinpointing individuals, the committee would require additional powers through a referendum.”