Ahern in pledge over Govt contract controls

The Cabinet has approved tighter controls on the awarding of department contracts and will unveil them soon, it was claimed tonight.

The awarding of PR tenders to Monica Leech, a political associate of Minister for Transport Martin Cullen, had embroiled him in controversy for over two months.

But a civil servant’s report last month cleared Mr Cullen of any wrongdoing and the Standards in Public Office Commission finally decided not to carry out its own probe last night.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern today again defended Mr Cullen in the Dáil and said new procedures would be announced soon.

He said: “The matters that have been the subject of controversy have been examined in detail by two separate bodies.

“There is nothing to suggest that Mr Cullen acted inappropriately in relation to the matters he was under question on.

“The Cabinet has discussed and practically finalised those matters and we will announce those very, very shortly.

“Hopeful that will alleviate any of the pressures around this issue (and) tighten up the system in relation to procurement.”

The Department of Finance is also carrying out its own review raised by former Revenue chief Dermot Quigley in his report published last month.

Mr Ahern was replying during Leaders’ Questions to the Green Party’s Trevor Sargent who asked the Taoiseach if he was sure there wouldn’t be a re-occurrence of the debacle.

He said: “I don’t know how the Taoiseach can say he was exonerated.”

He called on Mr Ahern to ensure he “put down criteria so we’re not going to have a repeat of this debacle again”.