A LONG-AWAITED internal audit on the €336,000 Leinster House bike shed has found that no value for money assessment was ever conducted in advance of the works.

The report, which has been published by the OPW this afternoon, found the costs of the OPW project had never been communicated to the Houses of the Oireachtas and that there was a lack of clear guidelines for oversight of projects worth less than €500,000.

The report, which was carried out by Deloitte, made three high priority findings and said there was an “absence of some fundamental good practices” for projects like the controversial bike shed.

It said a value for money assessment should have been conducted as part of a “robust options appraisal process.”

The internal audit said this would have included looking more closely at “lower cost alternatives” as well as the possibility of “doing nothing.”

It said: “Approval to proceed with the project should only have been formalised when these evaluations were complete.”

The audit also found there was no proper governance structure in place for projects that had a value of less than half a million Euro.

“The OPW cannot demonstrate how value for money was considered across all aspects of the decision to proceed with the delivery of the covered bike shelter project,” the report states. 

The report also found that management at Leinster House had not been given any information on how much the project would cost until it was completed.

The audit went on to state that the June 2021 decision to proceed with the bike shed  project was made without presentation or discussion of project costs.

“The HOC [Houses of the Oireachtas Commission] did not request cost information and the OPW did not present cost information,” it added. 

The HOC is the governing body which oversees the delivery of services, with some members of the Oireachtas sitting on the commission.

The auditors said when this happened there was a higher risk of poor value for money and “an increased risk of mismatch in expectations on delivery versus cost of delivery.”

The audit also found that while the Office of Public Works had a programme management plan in place, it was “not necessarily easy to navigate” especially for smaller projects like the bicycle shelter.

It said: “Where there is a lack of oversight of projects there is a risk that these projects may not represent value for money or may not deliver to exact requirements in an efficient and effective manner.”

There was a finding made as well that some of the paperwork for the project had not been signed or dated properly.

In its findings, the internal auditors said there should be “sample-based spot checks” made to ensure compliance.

The report found more generally that the OPW’s internal auditors were not always provided timely updates or information by colleagues.

It said: “Where the [head of internal audit] is not at an equivalent level to the senior management team, there is a risk of lack of engagement from management.

“[There is also] a risk that the ARC [Audit and Risk Committee] is not receiving the appropriate assurance as to the effectiveness of the control environment within the OPW.”

The report was released by the OPW following an appeal made under Freedom of Information laws. The OPW later published the report in full on its website.

In a statement issued today, the OPW said it accepted the audit report’s findings stating that the future focused recommendations made in the report around control measures will enhance capital expenditure practices across the OPW, with a specific focus on projects costing €500,000 or below.

The OPW said the report will provide “a focus for continuing to strengthen ways of working across the OPW” and it will “provide a platform from which control improvements can be made for capital projects into the future”.

With reporting by Christina Finn