Local authorities not accountable on spend

DÁIL REPORT:LOCAL AUTHORITIES cannot be held accountable by the State's financial watchdog for how they spend billions of euro in central Government funding each year, the Dáil has heard.

Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee John McGuinness said article 33 of the Constitution provides for the Comptroller Auditor general to audit “all accounts of monies administered by or under the authority of the Oireachtas” but the comptroller did not have the legal power to do so.

Mr McGuinness was introducing Private Members’ legislation, the Comptroller Auditor General (Amendment) Bill, to audit, investigate and hold local authorities accountable to the State’s financial watchdog and by extension to the committee.

But the Government rejected the Bill and Minister of State for the Environment Jan O’Sullivan said that while she supported the principle of the Bill, the legislation would duplicate the work of the Local Government Audit Service, which audits 34 city and county councils, 80 borough and town councils, 10 regional authorities and assemblies and 55 other bodies.

Mr McGuinness said, however, “it makes absolute sense” to amalgamate the audit service with 40 professional staff and the comptroller’s office which had 140. The Carlow-Kilkenny TD said that in 2007 local authorities received exchequer funding of €5.5 billion with just one value for money review, but there was no review in 2008 when local government received €5.7 billion and only one review of the €5.25 billion spent in 2009.

The Government, he said, is accountable to the Dáil which is accountable to the Irish people, but when public service accountability, transparency and “efficient use of billions of taxpayers’ money is under scrutiny, time frames are ignored, documents and written answers are not produced in a timely fashion and the committee is frequently treated with barely concealed annoyance and condescension”.

He highlighted cases where the comptroller could not directly audit or investigate, including the €5.2 billion spent on water services between 2000 and 2010. Overall, 40 per cent of treated water in the State does not get to the end user, but the committee could only raise the matter with the Department of the Environment.

The CAG and the committee could investigate the National Roads Authority, but could not make the county councils accountable for the use of funding for roads. He said €410 million was spent in 2010 on local roads but the cost of resurfacing ranged from €2.72 per sq m in Cavan to €11.53 in Sligo “where the cat’s eyes must be made of diamonds”.

Sinn Féin Cork North Central TD Jonathan O’Brien said Cork City Council only in recent years established a finance committee. The mayor of Cork was probably the highest paid in Europe with a salary in excess of €117,000 – more than a TD or Senator, but with very few powers, he said.

Independent TD for Kildare North Catherine Murphy said it took her years to get answers from Kildare County Council about development contribution funds for planning applications. Eventually, it emerged that the fund was €15 million short, because money was never collected. The council “had no difficulty in pursuing the small person through the courts if they did not pay water or bin charges but there was not the same focus on that big pot of money”.

Fine Gael TD Eoghan Murphy, said the legislation was the sort of Bill that should be put to a free vote. “The Government needs to loosen its grip on this chamber, particularly in areas such as this where we agree with so much.” A member of the committee, he said it was “frustrating” that it could not follow the €5 billion going to local authorities every year from central government.