SINN FÉIN’S FINANCE spokesman Pearse Doherty has said Fine Gael’s plans to subsume the Office of Public Works (OPW) into a new infrastructure department will not solve the problem of waste of public funds.

He and outgoing chair of the public accounts committee Mairead Farrell today laid out their party’s six-point plan to end the ‘waste of public money’ which they said is ‘rampant’.

An audit of government agencies, a new anti-corruption commission, reforms to freedom of information law, the expansion of the State auditor’s powers, a stronger consumer protection agency and a transparent procurement process are the party’s proposals.

Asked about Fine Gael’s manifesto proposal to dissolve the OPW, Doherty said: ”Moving the OPW from one office to the other doesn’t sort this issue. For over a decade, Fine Gael have overseen the OPW squandering massive amounts of money.”

He said that his party’s plan to conduct an audit, deliverable to the Department of Public Expenditure, would insure that overspends do not happen.

“We will set the tone in every government department that waste of public money is not acceptable,” he said.

“Let’s not be rearranging the deck chairs and pretending that everything is okay. This is about seriously stopping the waste that we’ve seen,” Doherty added.

Yesterday, Fine Gael announced in its manifesto proposals that it would be dissolving the OPW, which a minister for its party has overseen for nearly 10 years, and that the staff and services would be relocated into a new Department of Infrastructure. 

Mairead Farrell and Pearse Doherty presented Sinn Féin's six-point plan to curb and end the waste of public funds. Muiris O'Cearbhaill / The Journal Muiris O'Cearbhaill / The Journal / The Journal

The agency came under fire in September and October after it was revealed by journalist Ken Foxe that a bike shed at Leinster House cost over €336,000 to build. It was later revealed a government security hut, constructed by the OPW, cost €1.4 million.

Sinn Féin has pointed to the bikeshed, the overspend on the National Children’s Hospital and the security hut as examples of where, it says, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil “wasted” public funds.

Caps on tenders and access to information

Sinn Féin would make the relevant legislative changes necessary to enforce this plan immediately, according to Farrell, if her party enters government.

This is to make sure that the waste of public funds can be tackled from the first day.

As well as an annual audit, Sinn Féin intend to bring in new legislation so that the public procurement procedure – when State agencies advertise a public contract – must be made more transparent and contracts should be regulated to have a spending cap.

Farrell explained that among the changes to procurement legislation, contracting authorities would be required to prepare and annual report for the Minister of Public Expenditure each year.

According to the Galway West candidate, the report would state the type of procedure used in the contract, the details of the job and a list of any cost overruns.

The minister would later detail the report to the Dáil for scrutiny.

Changes to the Freedom of Information Act 2014 include expanding and altering internal protocols over what can and cannot be redacted by State agencies, so that as much information as possible can be shared in a transparent and timely manner.

Farrell told The Journal that her party’s also plans to reform the the appeals process. 

The act is often used by politicians, journalists and other members of the public to request information from State bodies and authorities that receive public funding.

If an applicant is unhappy with a decision taken upon the request, they can ask for an appeal which costs up to €30.

More fees are involved if the appeal is taken to the Information Commissioner’s Office or, some times, court.

Farrell’s proposal is that any state body found to have made the incorrect decision after an appeal must refund the applicant and that public bodies disclose, annually, how much money it received from appeal applications.