Public sector reform - Culture of overruns must change

WE HAVE become so used to public projects running over budget and schedule that mismanagement of public projects has become accepted, almost as if this flagrance was a tacit levy for getting the job done at all.

Make-it-up-as-you-go-along project management seems to have established an unchallenged grip on our public sector business consciousness. Though why this is acceptable remains a mystery. Especially as the values — or lack of them — that these failures represent are completely at odds with the standards and energies that sustained the Celtic Tiger.

Accepting these poor performances is yet another manifestation of the growing disappointment and cynicism that characterises so many people’s relationship with their state.

The Ballymun regeneration project, a short drainage sewer under the Shannon, the Dublin Port Tunnel and electronic voting — belatedly disowned by some Fianna Fáil Oireachtas members in the last week — are just some of the most flagrant examples, but there must be many more we never hear about. However, the integrated ticketing system for Dublin may yet set a new standard for delays and overruns.

The original Ballymun plan, drawn up in 1998, suggested a budget of €442 million and a completion date of 2006. Those figures have been revised, suggesting a budget of €942m and a completion date in 2012.

In Limerick a short drainage sewer — 2.6km — under the Shannon cost eight times more than forecast. Though the waste of resources is immoral it is the absolute lack of answers or accountability — or the ability to learn the lessons — that is really infuriating. The sense that nothing will change and that we’ll just plod along expecting the worst, have our fears confirmed, and mutely pick up the tab cannot do much for the country’s self-esteem.

That no one will be held to account is infuriating, especially as job security in so many private sector jobs is completely based on realising targets. This is not a case of looking for heads on plates it is just a need for some sort of an indication that someone somewhere has lost a stripe or slipped a few rungs on the career ladder because of this. An indication that someone somewhere is actually trying to improve on public project delivery.

But in a culture that required 10 firms of consultants to run their slide rules over the Ballymun project that is unlikely. Had a government department been in control it would have been little different. We have opted to run our state through hundreds of quangos, the most prominent of which is the Health Service Executive.

Earlier this week, Deputy Mary O’Rourke described the HSE as “a mystery wrapped up in an enigma, wrapped up in something else”.

“Because they don’t seem to be responsible to the minister, they don’t seem to be responsible to the Department of Health; they’re certainly not responsible to us as elected Dáil people,” she admitted.

So, just like some of the problems in our health service nobody is held responsible for project overruns and this cop out runs all the way to the top.

The Comptroller and Auditor General will produce a damming report and there will be 15 seconds of bluster and then normal service will resume.

We have called for ministry of public sector reform before. Mismanagement on the scale seen in Ballymun can only strengthen and add urgency to that argument.