Report criticises cost of embassy revamps

A scathing report has found systematic flaws with how tens of millions of euro are spent renovating Irish embassies.

A Department of Foreign Affairs audit exposed a failure to follow proper procedures, monitor spending, reclaim taxes, keep track of who made decisions, or stay within budgets.

Problems were highlighted at work carried out in Canada, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, and Ethiopia.

The audit examined over €15m worth of spending on the buildings and found numerous failures characterised by poor communication.

In one particular case it said the Government had been exposed to potential litigation because European tendering rules were clearly breached.

Separately a €24,000 tender for painting work in Prague spiralled over a six-month period in 2009 and became a €450,000 burden by the end of the year. An interior design consultant was sent from the Netherlands to the Czech Republic, at a cost of €12,800, for a project that was originally earmarked to cost less then €30,000 in total.

The controversial €6.4m that was spent on the lavish ambassador’s residence in Ottawa happened despite an architect’s report saying it was unnecessary.

The Canadian embassy never reclaimed the Cad$180,000 in sales tax which it was entitled to recoup from this work.

The audit found that at least €4.8m was spent buying and renovating the chancery building in the Hague, but it was not certain about this figure as records were not available.

Nearby, problems encountered during a project at the official residence in the Hague saw the budget jump by an “exceptionally large” 71%.

This included €51,000 spent on security companies for two weeks after a burglar alarm had effectively foiled an attempted break-in.

The auditor questioned why the extra money was spent when the alarm had done its job.

Elsewhere, a €1.2m tender was awarded to renovate a newly leased building in Brussels but no award records were kept because staff thought it was Dublin’s responsibility.

This was to move into rented accommodation from a building owned by the Office of Public Works. Internally officials questioned the move on value-for-money grounds.

The audit said there were fundamental problems with how decisions were taken and projects were managed.

It said that heads of mission in our embassies are directing how money is spent but they are spared accountability because the costs are centrally sanctioned.

In a statement, the department said it had commissioned the audit in response to cost overruns in a small number of capital projects and that actions had been taken to address the weaknesses identified.

“A special committee of the department’s management, chaired by the secretary general, has been established to reinforce and broaden the structures for overseeing the accommodation function, including project scheduling and authorisation. The department is seeking sanction for the recruitment of a professionally qualified chief financial officer to strengthen expert oversight of financial controls across the whole department. It is also accepted there is a need to appoint on-site project managers to complement local architectural oversight on a cost-benefit basis where this is warranted by the scale of the undertaking,” it said.