Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1958 > Committee of Public Accounts > Report - Appropriation Accounts 1955 - 1956

APPENDIX II.

MINUTE OF THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE ON REPORT DATED 13 JUNE, 1957, OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS

SOCIAL ASSISTANCE

Paragraph 1—Grants under the Education (Provision of Meals) Acts, 1914 to 1930.

With regard to the advice tendered by the Attorney General that the cost of preparing meals, over and above the cost of the food, provided by a local authority under section 3 of the Act of 1914, could not legally be met from local funds, the Minister is informed by the Department of Social Welfare that it is proposed to deal with the matter by means of an amendment to the Social Welfare (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, 1957, the effect of which will be to validate any such expenditure from local funds and any contribution made thereto out of the Exchequer. The Minister concurs in this course.

In the matter of the standardisation of meals supplied by local authorities the Minister is informed by the Department of Social Welfare that the long term authorisations given to local authorities at the inception of the School Meals Scheme, permitting local authorities to incur expenditure out of the rates, have been withdrawn and replaced by annual authorisations, each local authority being required to submit a fresh application for authority to operate the scheme. In the result the estimated average daily cost of the meals for the current year’s scheme is approximately 5d. in the Dublin and Dún Laoghaire area and varies from approximately 1½d. to 4½d. in the other areas. Accordingly, a narrowing of the range of cost, as compared with previous practice, has been achieved. Differences in cost, however, as between one area and another cannot wholly be eliminated because of variations in quantities of food supplied and in local prices. In this connection, the Department considers that it is preferable to allow discretion to the local authorities to supply whatever type of meal is locally acceptable, provided that the cost is kept within reasonable limits.

ARMY PENSIONS

Paragraph 2—Special allowances.

Revised arrangements for the verification of claims for the award of medals have been put into operation. These arrangements aim at checking claims by reference to all persons or records likely to afford reliable information. It is hoped that these arrangements will minimise the risk of a grant being made to which the recipient is not entitled.

PRIMARY EDUCATION

Paragraph 3—Fees for attending Preparatory Colleges.

The Minister will, as requested, inform the Committee as soon as revised fees are settled.

EXCHEQUER EXTRA RECEIPTS

Paragraph 4—Exchequer Extra Receipts.

The Minister agrees with the views of the Committee on this matter and is having those Votes examined which contain exchequer extra receipts so as to bring such receipts to account in suitable cases as appropriations in aid.

GARDA SÍOCHÁNA

Paragraph 5—Control of stores in workshops at Garda Siochána Depot.

The Minister is informed that the arrears in the posting of records have now been brought up to date and that a complete stocktaking of stores has been carried out. Spot checks are carried out periodically and the results are recorded. The Minister is also informed that certain improvements in storage accommodation have already been effected and that further improvements are under consideration. A system of cost control of the transport maintenance service recommended by a firm of management consultants has been put in operation on an experimental basis but it will take some time before results can be reliably assessed. The Committee will be informed of the results in due course.

WIRELESS BROADCASTING

Paragraph 6—Emergency reserve stores for the maintenance of wireless transmitting stations.

The stores relating to the shortwave transmitter were offered for sale with the transmitter itself. It was considered that such a course would give the best prospect of disposing of the stores and might at the same time improve the chances of selling the transmitter as a working unit. Efforts to sell the transmitter as a working unit together with its associated stores have not yet ceased.

The amount of the other stores regarded as surplus or obsolete is now reduced to £595 and a further reduction is expected. Valves which originally cost £288 and which had been regarded as surplus were transferred to the Civil Aviation service for use at Shannon Airport and other valves—which originally cost £1,938—were used as spares for the standby transmitters at Athlone, Dublin and Cork.

DEFENCE

Paragraph 7—Emergency medical stores.

Comprehensive instructions were issued to the various hospital authorities, who had statutory obligations in the matter, for the custody, maintenance and general storage of the stores as well as for the turnover of the reserve stocks held. In view of this and also of the age of the stores, the circumstances prevailing at the time of purchase, their perishable nature and the fact that the hospitals were carrying reserve stocks of their own, it appears to the Minister that without an elaborate and costly system of inspection it would not have been possible to secure closer co-operation.

The total value of serviceable stores held in reserve at the 99 hospitals is estimated, on the basis of a partial inspection, at £25,000.

The Minister has been informed that the stores described as serviceable are not all of the type and quality which would now conform to normal peacetime standards. This is especially so in the case of certain drugs, as newer types are now available. The obsolescent drugs could, however, be used in the event of scarcity of more modern types. The disposal of such medical stores as are not considered suitable for retention as reserve stocks is being considered by the Departments of Defence and Health and the Committee will be informed of developments.

Paragraph 8—Sale of motor-cycles.

Legal proceedings have been instituted against the defaulting contractor. The Committee will be informed in due course of the outcome of the proceedings.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Paragraph 9—Non-statutory contributions to Housing Loan Charges of Local Authorities.

The Minister has examined the matter in the light of the Committee’s conclusions. While these payments have the authority of the annual Appropriation Acts, the Minister agrees in the particular circumstances that continuing statutory authority should be sought in the next appropriate housing legislation and he has advised the Minister for Local Government accordingly.

PUBLIC WORKS AND BUILDINGS

Paragraph 10—Adaptation of Shelton Abbey buildings.

The Minister is in agreement with the view that time and material contracts should be used in exceptional circumstances only and that they should be subject to close supervision and check. In fact, the great majority of contracts placed by the Commissioners of Public Works are of the lump sum type and such time and material contracts as have been placed are usually of a kind that do not involve substantial expenditure. The Shelton Abbey contract was altogether exceptional in magnitude but it should be observed that an independent surveyor who was consulted in regard to the placing of a contract for the second stage of the works advised that certain parts of the works were so unusual and complicated that the preparation of quantities for these was impracticable. It was, therefore, necessary to have recourse to a time and materials contract for these portions of the works, viz., demolition and restoration arising out of dry rot.

Paragraph 11—Construction of hard surface runways at Baldonnel Aerodrome.

In nearly all cases of major building and construction works for a Department of State, two Departments are involved, viz., the requisitioning Department and the Office of Public Works. Where the work gives rise to unusual technical problems it is sometimes necessary to engage consultants. In the present case, the siting, design, and supervision of the construction of the runways all necessitated specialised experience and skill of the type possessed only by the airports engineering staff of the Department of Industry and Commerce, whose services were, of course, available free of extra expense. Moreover, the Department of Industry and Commerce were interested parties in view of the possible future use of Baldonnel as an alternative to Dublin Airport in certain conditions. The scheme was carried out under the general direction of a small committee representative of the Departments concerned. The Minister is satisfied that the arrangements made were necessary in view of the diversity of the interests affected and that they were the most economical that could be devised in the circumstances.

Paragraph 12—Pumping units.

The Minister notes and concurs in the views of the Committee on the maintenance of standby equipment.

The defects that occurred in some of these pumps while in store were not due to neglect of maintenance, however, but to the fact that covered storage space could not be made available for them for some time. The Minister is assured that the pumps were maintained, as far as was practicable in the circumstances, in accordance with normal engineering practice.

Paragraph 13—Lighting sets for excavators.

The Minister agrees that the purchase of equipment without reasonable expectation that it would be required or used could not be justified. In the present case, the lighting sets were purchased in the expectation that it would be possible to introduce shift work on drainage schemes and to work the excavators outside hours of daylight and that, accordingly, lighting sets would be needed. In the event, owing to the shortage of key personnel, the introduction of shift work was not feasible and only limited use could be made of the lighting sets.

The position has been reviewed in the light of present conditions and it has been decided to dispose of 55 of the present stock of 80 lighting sets. Nine of the sets will be required by other Departments; the remainder will be advertised for sale.

LANDS

Paragraph 14—Embankments at Rossmanagher, Co. Clare.

The Minister has given special consideration to the Committee’s view that the initial breach in the embankments could have been repaired as an emergency measure and that the question of liability for the cost could have been settled afterwards. He has been informed that the Land Commission did in fact make every effort to close the breach immediately, expenditure of the sum originally estimated to be needed being sanctioned without reference to the question of ultimate liability. It should be emphasised that the Land Commission, while prepared to help as far as practicable in cases of this kind, are generally under no liability to carry out repairs. Nevertheless, when it appeared some months later that further work, estimated then to bring the cost up to some £3,800, would be necessary, the Land Commission, with the approval of the Minister, proposed to undertake the additional work provided that, for their part, the local authority would make a contribution of £1,000 towards the cost and likewise the affected landowners another £1,000 by way of annuities subject to having under the Land Act, 1933. Once it was decided to seek such contributions, there was a much better chance of securing them before additional works were commenced rather than afterwards.

In the event contributions were not forthcoming. The Land Commission later made an offer to contribute up to £4,000 towards the cost of the work (by then estimated at £9,000) if the local authority would carry it out; this offer was not accepted. The inference in the Committee’s report is that, in the light of the subsequent decision to have a complete reconstruction of the embankments carried out by the Commissioners of Public Works under the Arterial Drainage Act, 1945, there was waste of money because the work was suspended. It is apparent, however, from a report dated 30th November, 1953, from the Chief Engineer, Office of Public Works, that the original breach served to relieve pressure on other bad spots in the embankments; that if the emergency repairs attempted by the Land Commission had been successfully completed, there would have been every likelihood of an equally serious breach at some other point; and that while the need for the comprehensive work involving the raising and strengthening of some 16 miles of embankments was emphasised by the occurrence of the breach, that work would have been necessary in any event, even if no actual breach had occurred in 1949.

The Minister is satisfied that the existing arrangements for consultation on drainage and allied activities between the Departments and Offices concerned are generally satisfactory. These arrangements have in fact been under constant review for some years past and the decisions reached are briefly as follows:—

(a) inland embankments are to be dealt with by the Commissioners of Public Works according as they reach arterial drainage schemes for the catchment areas in which the embankments are located;

(b) marine embankments are to be dealt with by the Commissioners only when a maintenance organisation in a convenient catchment area has been set up; and

(c) While it would be quite uneconomical for the Commissioners to deal with embankments in advance of the times just indicated, as such advance handling might involve the risk of later modifying or even abandoning expensive works undertaken earlier, the Commissioners will, in exceptional cases where interim repair works are considered desirable by the Land Commission but are beyond their capacity, be available to assist by advice or to provide engineering plant or possibly to execute the works as agents in particular cases. Otherwise, interim works which the Land Commission consider desirable will be executed by themselves as quickly as possible.

Paragraph 15—Purchase of fencing stakes through the Central Purchasing Department.

The instructions laid down for central purchasing are designed to secure supplies at the lowest cost to the Exchequer and also to ensure the open and fair competition necessary to prevent abuses. While the instructions may be modified in detail from time to time, these two principles must be maintained.

It is the practice to invite Forestry Division to tender for contracts of fencing stakes. The Division did in fact tender for a number of the contracts included in the amount of £860 approximately, referred to in the Report of the Committee, but the price quoted was in every case higher than the tender accepted. The Land Commission, therefore, obtained its requirements of fencing stakes at a lower price than they would have paid to the Forestry Division for the supplies offered by the latter. No surplus stocks of fencing stakes remained on hands in the Forestry Division as a result.

It is not considered desirable that the Land Commission should be required to obtain its supplies of fencing stakes exclusively from the Forestry Division. The Accounting Officer for the Vote for Lands would be expected to satisfy himself that the charge to the Vote in respect of fencing stakes does not exceed the current market price. The current market price can be tested only by obtaining tenders and once tenders have been obtained it would obviously be unfair to purchase from Forestry Division irrespective of whether or not its tender was the lowest. The Minister hopes that the Committee, on further consideration, will judge the practice under the existing rules to be fair and correct and that no revision of the rules to constitute the Forestry Division the sole supplier of fencing stakes to Government Departments is called for.

Paragraph 16—Cleaning of drains.

Legal advice on the complex issues involved has been received. It indicates that the position is not entirely free from doubt and some aspects of it may require clarification by legislation. The matter is under consideration by the Land Commission.

SOCIAL ASSISTANCE

Paragraph 17—Old Age Pensions.

The Department of Social Welfare has informed the Minister that arrangements have been made with the Estate Duty Branch of the Office of the Revenue Commissioners under which that Branch furnishes to the Department at weekly, instead of monthly, intervals lists of Grants of Probate and Administration in cases in which the Department might be interested.

In addition the Department has arranged to expedite, so far as possible, action on cases where there is a reasonable presumption that a deceased old age pensioner has acted fraudulently in obtaining a pension.

STATIONERY OFFICE

Paragraph 18—Arrangements for placing of advertising in Government publications.

The contractual arrangements for advertising in Government publications have been submitted to the Law Officers for examination and advice. The Committee will be informed of any revision of the arrangements that may be effected as a result.