€33.6M Spend On Consultants During Banking Crisis

A report today from the office of the financial comptroller has revealed Government spend on consult services during the banking crisis has totalled €33.6 million in the past year.

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, looking at government spend over the past year, said during the course of developing and implementing the wide range of measures aimed at stablilising the banking sector there had "necessarily been very significant recourse to the services of legal, financial and economic advisors" by the Department of Finance, the National Treasury Management Agency and the Central Bank.

The auditor general said this was required because of the highly technical issues that had arisen, and because of the frequent need to complete the work within a very short timeframe.

Today's report reveals that in the last year the Department of Finance spent €9.8 million on contracts with Arthur Cox Solicitors for legal advice and with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for accounting advice. The biggest spender was the National Treasury Management Agency who shelled out €11.9 million on services with Rothschild, Author Cox Solicitors and PwC. The National Pension Reserve Fund Commission paid Sir Andrew Large €3.6 million, while the Central Bank itself spent €8.5 million on consultancy fees with Ernst and Young.

The report also admitted, due to the "nature and urgency" of the work, the procurement of some services was done without using the standard competitive processes such as issuing tenders for services. Significant internal costs in relation to staff engaged in the design and implementation of the stabilisation measures were also incurred, the report said.

Labour Spokesperson on Finance Joan Burton this morning said described the absence of a competitive tender process as "particularly galling".

"It seems that the fact that the country is virtually bankrupt has not made any impact on the capacity of some of these operators to attract top dollar fees for their services. It also seems that when it comes to splashing out on consultants' fees, rather than on investing in useful public service a different set of rules apply."

The report will be put before Dáil Éireann and is available to the Committee of Public Accounts who can summon the decision makers in front of a committee to answer questions of the level of spending.

(DW/GK)