No value for money analysis carried out on €25m centre
A critical internal audit of the decision to fund the National Digital Research Centre (NDRC) said it broke Department of Finance guidelines. “We are not satisfied that the appraisal process, as stipulated in the Department of Finance capital appraisal guidelines… have been adhered to. This represents a high risk,” it said.
The Department of Communications’ Internal Audit Unit called for a retrospective analysis to see if it was worth €25m.
The unit told senior management all spending projects of this size should have had a cost benefit analysis. Had this taken place, it could have probed if the NDRC was even necessary, the unit said.
When Government approved the spending a successful tender had already been chosen and minister Noel Dempsey was only looking for a green light.
The centre was devised to replace the €35m MediaLab Europe venture, which was in liquidation.
In 2007, the Public Accounts Committee found there were poor structures to monitor MediaLab and that its scientific output was dismal.
At the time Mr Dempsey said the NDRC showed he had “absorbed the lessons” of the €35m failure in governance and risk assessment.
Yesterday, the department said a retrospective analysis had not been carried out. But appraisal techniques are not always suitable for highly technical issues, and its key concern has been to ensure the NDRC spent wisely.
“The principal action taken by management has been to ensure that the evaluation process… for approving individual projects [funding] is rigorous and robust,” it said.
