Donegal Council Ignored Audit And Continued To Pay Consultancy Firm

It has been revealed that Donegal County Council (DCC) paid a London consultancy firm a further €90,000 despite a damning internal audit highlighting lavish expenses and finding that some of the advice given was freely available on the internet.

A special internal audit raised questions over payments of more than €2.4m made by the council to London-based, One Sigman Limited, including bills for expensive wine and first-class travel, and almost €10,000 being paid for expenses without any receipts provided.

The damning internal audit was completed in June 2010 but the Irish Independent newspaper has learned that Donegal County Council continued to pay the firm until late last year.

One Sigma was hired to examine all aspects of work by council staff and suggest new work practices in a bid to cut costs.

It is understood that the company and associated firms, headed by directors Stephen Cang and David Stroll, earned almost €3m from the council over the course of seven years between 2004 and 2011.

Mr Cang was also paid a further €483,635 in fees between 1996 and 2004. The money paid included contracts worth €2.4m, which were awarded without first being put out to tender, as required by law.

Despite the findings of the audit the council now maintains it had no option but to continue paying the cash to complete the project. And it is now planning to spend even more money by hiring new consultants to find out if One Sigma's work was worthwhile.

Liam Ward, the council's head of corporate services, said the authority had "no choice" but to continue working with One Sigma.

"A decision was taken in June 2010 to complete the work with One Sigma for a fixed fee of €90,000 and that work has been completed. It wasn't possible at that stage to tender for this extra work," he said.

"The council has taken a decision to commission an evaluation report in relation to the work done by One Sigma and we expect to issue a tender for that shortly."

Auditor Tony McCrossan also found the initial contracts had been issued without any tendering process, breaching both Irish and EU regulations.

(H)