North school-building programme legal challenge could cost taxpayers £2.4m

The North's Department of Education faces a potential £2.4m (€2.69m) bill for a legal challenge to its school-building programme, it was revealed today.

An ambitious plan to speed up the delivery of almost 70 major centres across the North could be delayed several years as the court battle may be set for Europe, officials for the minister added.

Contractors who lost out on work claimed the original process was flawed and want to force a rethink through the justice system.

And the Department may have to ask the wider Executive to shoulder some of the escalating costs if the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg becomes involved, deputy secretary John McGrath told Stormont’s education committee.

“It is a broad-back issue, there will be serious issues about pursuing an appeal for the sheer simple cost of that,” he said.

SDLP committee member Dominic Bradley added: “Most people would prefer to see this money going to frontline services rather than into the pockets of lawyers and barristers.”

Last March Education Minister Caitriona Ruane unveiled the major capital works framework, which aimed to deliver almost 70 new schools in four years.

However, a recent High Court ruling scrapped the £500m (€561m) plus programme and the Department intends to appeal. That is expected to be heard in the autumn but if it is unsuccessful the Department will consider going to Europe.

Mr McGrath added: “We are effectively doing it on behalf of the wider government in Northern Ireland, that is the principle around frameworks that we want to pursue.

“It may well have to be pursued ultimately to Europe.”

He added: “We are hoping the (wider Executive) system would give us some assistance with the cost.”

The framework was to have ensured projects made it into construction more quickly and efficiently.

But Irish contractor Henry Brothers successfully challenged the government’s procurement method after missing out on a place in the four-year agreement.

The company launched the action in 2007 after claiming the mechanism used to choose contractors was flawed as it had not required competing bidders to submit a cost sample at the primary stage.

The Department’s £2.4m (€2.69m) bill is made up of £430,000 (€483,000) legal costs and £2m (€2.24m) potential damages, before the price of this autumn’s appeal is included. If that was successful for the Department those charges would be revisited, Mr McGrath said.

Mr Bradley warned: “They tried to bring it in to speed up the delivery of the major projects but ironically it has had the opposite effect, it has slowed down the delivery.

“It is worrying that the Department has incurred such high legal costs... at a time when the education budget is under severe pressure.”