The electronic voting project abandonned by the Government earlier this year should have been subject to more rigorous cost/benefit analysis, the Comptroller and Auditor General said today.
In his annual report, Mr John Purcell acknowledged the decision to move to an electronic system was primarlily influenced by factors other than cost but said it should have been evaluated better by the Government "in view of the scale of the financial commitments involved".
The report estimates the cost of the abandoned system so far is €47.5 million to €50 million. "The degree of value obtained for the vast bulk of this expenditure depends on future decisions on the use of Electronic Voting and Counting," the report says.
He also said the purchase of €680,000 worth of an extra 400 voting machines for the Nice Referendum without identified modifications was avoidable.
In April, the Commission on Electronic Voting forced the Government to abandon the electronic voting system in June's European and local elections. In a brief report, the Commission found that the security of the voting system could not be guaranteed in time for the elections to be held.
The Comptroller and Auditor General is an independent constitutional officer with responsibility for the audit of public funds. He reports to Dáil Éireann.
