Minister accountable for Flannery

Calls for Frank Flannery to appear before the Public Accounts Committee intensified after his resignation as chairman of the Forum on Philanthropy to which Phil Hogan, Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government, had appointed him in 2011.

Surely, these calls should have been directed at the Department of Environment, Community and Local Government, because taxpayers’ money paid for the €60,000-per-annum, 18-month contract which Mr Flannery secured from the Forum. According to its audited accounts for 2012, the Department provided €631,635 to Philanthropy Ireland — 79% of the lobby group’s income that year.

In the Central Government sector, proposals to procure supplies or services above a certain threshold (€25,000) without a competitive process must be subject to an independent internal review and annual reporting to the C&AG and the Government Contracts Committee.