Public finances - Waste costs the taxpayer

Nobody should be surprised that the annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General has again highlighted waste of public funds by State agencies.

The Department of Social Protection overpaid €83.4m in 52,603 cases last year.

Almost €26m of that was attributed to welfare fraud, involving 15,899 claims.

Between 2007 and 2010, there was a 65% increase in overpayments.

Only 25% of those overpayments were recovered. The determination to curtail such fraud is questionable, because there was a 29% drop in the number of completed prosecutions involving welfare fraud.

Over €75m was paid for goods and services that were never put up for competitive tender. At least 469 contracts, valued at an average of over €160,000 each, were not put out for tender, despite rules stipulating that any contract worth over €25,000 should be open to competition.

Such practices are an invitation to corruption.

Those responsible should be held responsible.

Government expenditure has to be cut, but it should be cut in the area of administrative waste, rather than frontline services.

The waste outlined in the report is indicative of how much work needs to be done, because we should never put up with such waste.