Fás paid twice as much for a new head office than a property consultant’s value, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) revealed today.
In separate deals, the C&AG found the Office of Public Works (OPW) bought six decentralisation sites for €6.9 million more than advisers had recommended.
The planned Fás headquarters in Birr, Co Offaly, cost €1.5 million in December 2004, despite consultants’ advising in August that year that the 5.59 acre site was worth €700,000.
The owner rejected the agency’s initial bid and following negotiations the State training body came up with the asking price.
The C&AG’s report also noted that four months after the initial low valuation, the consultant revised their advice the new valuation met the on-the-market value.
Fás management have yet to move their headquarters into the building.
Raising more question marks about corporate control at the agency, the C&AG went on to reveal Fás took a ten-year lease in 2007 for one floor in a building at the Birr Technology Centre.
Some 40 staff were supposed to take up posts there but only 20 people moved in.
Bosses agreed to rent the 708sq m space for €99,000 a year and then asked the landlord’s building firm to quote for a fit-out, for which they charged €1 million.
No-one else was asked to tender for the work and the refit and rent cost the taxpayer €200,000 a year.
The report also looked into the OPW’s purchase of sites for decentralisation and found 15 of the 22 sites were acquired at below average asking prices.
Five sites with costs higher than top benchmarked prices were purchased from private owners, it said.
A site in Mullingar was bought for €8.2 million, which was €2.9 million more than expected; a Newbridge site cost €5.5 million which was €1.5 million over; a Claremorris site purchased for €2.5 million was €1.2 million above expectations; while sites in Roscommon for €3 million, and Thomastown for €1.8 million were €900,000 and €300,000 respectively higher than the expected cost.
The C&AG also revealed consultants warned the OPW they paid over-the-odds for three sites.
The suspended decentralisation plan should have seen 11,000 civil servants from Dublin move to 95 locations around the country. By April this year 3,148 staff had moved.
PA