THE AUDITOR of accounts for one of the companies behind the Quarryvale development has said he was never provided with invoices for three payments totalling £80,000 to lobbyist Frank Dunlop.
Tribunal counsel had suggested that Mr Dunlop retrospectively issued the invoices to explain round figure payments given to him by Cork developer Owen O'Callaghan. Mr Dunlop had denied this.
Leo Fleming was audit manager with Deloitte & Touche in 1992 when it was asked to audit Barkhill Ltd, a company set up by Luton-based developer Tom Gilmartin to acquire property to develop Quarryvale, now the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre.
After Mr Gilmartin ran into financial difficulties, Cork-based developer Owen O'Callaghan took a 40 per cent interest in the project and AIB, the bank Mr Gilmartin had borrowed money from to buy the land, took a 20 per cent stake.
Mr Fleming said when he was asked to audit Barkhill, the company had made no returns since it was incorporated in 1988, despite having spent £22 million, and was in danger of being struck off. It had no books, its records were "incomplete and piecemeal" and were in four different locations.
He had queried a number of transactions that passed through the accounts, including three payments of £40,000, £15,000 and £25,000 in May and June 1991 to Shefran Ltd, a public relations company owned by Mr Dunlop. The payments were made before the June local elections.
Counsel for the tribunal, Pat Quinn SC, said there were unusual features about the records.
"There were three missing invoices, and . . . you never saw those invoices even to this day, isn't that right?" he asked. "Yes, yes," Mr Fleming answered.
Mr Quinn said if invoices had been issued in June 1991, then there should have been no difficulty supplying them or copies of them. "You were sent around in a circle in relation to these invoices," he said.
Mr Quinn said Mr Gilmartin had said Mr Fleming asked him who Shefran was. He had been unable to tell him and advised him to contact the bank. However, Mr Fleming said Mr Gilmartin had volunteered the information.
Mr Quinn asked Mr Fleming if he had ever queried Shefran with the bank. He said he hadn't.
