The annual report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) is, by its nature, a document which creates a lot of disparate headlines. It studies major spending programmes in areas like health and housing alongside smaller projects, in an attempt to verify that money is being well spent and that the rules are being adhered to. Inevitably, it finds shortcomings in departmental budgets, which add up to close to €90 billion in annual spending. But apart from the detail, are there general lessons to be learned?
It would be a mistake to over-interpret reports of problems and poor oversight. But equally a clear common theme is a lack of modern control systems and of key information in important areas of spending – for example in the delivery of new social and affordable housing, or of primary care centres for local communities.
In terms of housing, the C&AG finds, remarkably, that there is “no central database of housing projects delivered under the Department’s housing programme.” One is being developed, but will not be fully operational until 2028.
“The additional billions being pumped into housing heightens the risks associated with inadequate information,” the report warns, providing case studies of the huge variations in the cost of delivery under existing schemes.
RM Block
In the roll-out of primary care centres, meanwhile, the C&AG finds the programme needs to be reviewed in terms of a rising population, targets for delivery have not been set and that key centralised information of the centres and what services they offer was not always available. In a further example of outdated systems, the Office of Public Works was found to have incomplete and in some cases incorrect details of its huge property portfolio and questions over the management of leases.
At a time when public spending has been rising sharply and extra billions are to go into public investment, it is essential that the best management tools and systems are available and that value for money is central to all decisions.
Tight management and common sense are also vital – from plans for a new national science centre to Garda management of the policing of the 2024 Uefa football final in Dublin, the report shows a range of occasions when these have clearly been lacking. These cases may be less significant in financial terms than some of the bigger spending programmes, but they nonetheless show a worrying lack of attention in the spending of public money.
Next week’s budget will, as ever, focus on incremental changes and on who is getting what. But it also provides for the vast amount of spending which rolls on from one year to another– and where ministers and senior officials must concentrate their attention to ensure there is delivery.
