THE COMPTROLLER and Auditor General John Buckley has launched an investigation after the Department of Justice and Irish Prison Service awarded contracts worth €100 million to a construction company despite only one €4.7 million project going to tender, it has emerged.
One of the projects not put out for tender was a €21 million 64-cell block at Castlerea Prison, Co Roscommon. Another four contracts were worth between €5 million and €6 million each.
Officials from the Department of Finance yesterday expressed concern after details of the contracts were outlined before the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee by the Department of Justice secretary general Seán Aylward and director general of the Irish Prison Service Brian Purcell.
Department of Finance principal officer Stephanie O’Donnell said those awarding the contracts should have checked if they were complying with procurement rules. “From what I’ve heard it is a concern,” she said.
Her colleague, assistant principal officer Billy Noone, said: “I’m not sure if this arrangement would be in line with an open and transparent procedure.” The committee heard no legal advice was sought on the procurement process. The only party advising the department and prison service was a firm of quantity surveyors, who charged up to €3 million.
Committee chairman Bernard Allen TD (FG), who yesterday aired the matter publicly for the first time after receiving confidential information, said he was “flabbergasted” at the “disjointed approach” taken by the departments.
He questioned “how in the name of God” contracts valued collectively at about €100 million and individually at up to €21 million did not go to full tender.
He asked Mr Aylward to furnish him with more information “within days”. He also asked Mr Aylward and Mr Purcell to appear before the committee again to discuss the matter further. All of the contracts, at prisons across the country, were awarded to well-known Dublin-based firm Glenbeigh Construction. The company, run by a group of Co Meath businessmen, has completed many State projects including a glass kiosk tuck shop at Leinster House costing almost €1.3 million.
An initial prisons contract valued at €4.7 million was put out to tender in 2003 for a new accommodation block in Loughan House open jail in Co Cavan. There was also a “draw down” clause in the contract. This meant that the successful bidder could be asked to carry out other projects across the prison system based on the same pricing scale, with a maximum 12 per cent increase included to take account of inflation.
Since the matter has been under investigation by the Comptroller and Auditor General’s value for money committee, the prison service has hired three independent consultants to review the projects. Mr Purcell said these indicated value for money had been delivered. He said the reviews had been conducted because there were concerns “going forward that this is something we wouldn’t be able to stand over”.
Mr Aylward accepted the manner in which such significant contracts were awarded could be seen as problematic. “I’d prefer if it had been done in a different way, yes,” he said.
However, in the period in question, from 2003, the prison service was dealing with a “titanic” industrial relations issue with prison officers over overtime payments. Staff were under pressure and operating on a “burning platform” which “drove them into making decisions of this nature”.
One of the smaller projects was the construction of two houses at a cost of €1.1 million at the Castlerea Prison open-living section, called The Grove, where the killers of Det Garda Gerry McCabe are held.
An all-weather soccer pitch was also built there. Other projects included a €5.9 million accommodation block at Shelton Abbey open prison, Co Wicklow and a €5.8 million control room and €5 million recreation facility at Castlerea.
