FLOOD RELIEF:NEARLY €9 million in funding paid in advance to local authorities for flood relief schemes will be unspent by the end of this year, the report said.
About two-thirds of that unspent funding is attributable to flood relief schemes in Waterford and Carlow, which recently suffered severe flooding in the town centre due to unprecedented rainfall.
The CAG said that in the case of Carlow, there were delays in finalising contractual arrangements, necessitating recourse to arbitration.
In the Waterford case, there has been a delay in placing the contract due to a changeover to a fixed-price contract and the "reappraisal of flood levels following heavy rainfall and near flooding in the early part of 2008".
A total of €32 million was allocated for flood relief in 2007 under the Office of Public Works's (OPW) flood relief projects.
But just €23.115 million of that allocation was spent.
In the course of the audit, it emerged that €13 million of the out-turn consisted of advances to local authorities to carry out projects on behalf of the OPW.
The CAG expressed concern about whether these advance payments meet the requirements under the relevant legislation governing exchequer funds.
"In addition, I was also concerned at the level of the advances made in the light of the slow progress in commencing the related works."
The OPW told the auditors that it had been practice for a number of years where a local authority is "about to enter into a major resource commitment" to provide the funding so contractual obligations can be met as they arise.
The CAG said the practice of advancing funds to local authorities before formal contracts are concluded "needs to be reappraised".
He said overall, the outcome of this practice has been to create an allocation of €9 million for which work will still not have been completed one year later.