Cash-strapped Galway council overspent by €2.5m

A sample of public contracts entered into by cash-strapped Galway City Council has revealed an overspend of almost €2.5m.

In one case, an agreed contract ended up costing 300% more than the original figure.

The details were revealed following an inspection of the contracts at the Galway City local authority by the Local Government Auditor (LGA).

In his report for 2013, the LGA said he had reviewed a sample of 32 capital contracts to find out if procurement guidelines had been properly followed.

He discovered that only 10 were in accordance with the tendered price, five contracts in excess of the tender threshold had not even been tendered, while the remaining 17 were all in excess of the tendered price.

“The contracts involved had cumulative tender prices of €9.6m, whereas payments to the end of 2013 totalled €12m,” the LGA said.

The biggest overspend was to consultants Hyder Tobin Consulting in respect of roadworks at Seamus Quirke Rd in the Westside area of the city.

The original value of the contract was €263,000, but it ended up costing some 300% more — just over €1m.

Consultants Ryan Hanley and Co had agreed a figure of €216,279 for their work on upgrading the Terryland water treatment plant, but by the time the work concluded, the price had shot up by 138% to more than €500,000.

Details supplied to city councillors included an explanation for the increase in the price of the contracts. Hyder Tobin had been retained and the scope of their work “extended significantly” due to legislative changes in respect of health and safety, which led to design amendments.

Contractor time on site in respect of the Terryland water plant had been extended by 42 months.