A PUBLIC body that has exposed the taxpayer to potentially huge liabilities has been accused of trying to cover up its losses on property by failing to publish annual accounts.
Fine Gael environment spokesman Phil Hogan said new information released to him by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA) confirmed the agency had not yet filed its annual accounts, which were due in June.
Mr Hogan called on Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley to authorise the Comptroller and Auditor General to investigate the authority’s financial and property dealings.
Mr Hogan said correspondence between him and the authority’s chair, Prof Niamh Brennan, had established that its accounts had not been filed along with its annual report for 2008 which was presented to Mr Gormley in June.
“The reason offered to explain this situation was that the DDDA is waiting on the publication of the Nama valuation methodology before it proceeds with concluding its accounts.
“The failure to submit annual accounts with an annual report is highly irregular and raises serious questions about the financial standing and robustness of the DDDA on foot of a series of high-profile property deals it became embroiled in over the last five years or so,” Mr Hogan said yesterday.
He added that the correspondence showed that the departure of the authority’s chief executive during the summer had been a result of the board deciding “not to offer a further contract of employment” a year before the contract was due to expire.
“This suggests that the previous CEO was sacked rather than retired early,” said Mr Hogan.
He added that there had been a lot of public comment about the authority’s property dealings and its exceptionally close relationship with Anglo Irish Bank but the revelation that it had not submitted annual accounts with its annual report was alarming.
“I am going to invite the chairman and senior executives of the DDDA to attend a meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment to answer questions relating to the financial and property dealings of the authority. Given the new chairman’s recent public comments on the importance of high standards and transparency in public life, I am sure she will welcome the opportunity to discuss these matters,” said Mr Hogan.
“The notion of public bodies waiting for the highly contentious Nama valuation model to be published so that they can cook their books raises a whole new set of problems. Rather than using the standard market value methodology, as has been the practice, Government agencies and authorities can now fiddle the figures in their accounts and misrepresent the impact of any or all property-related activities they have been engaged in,” he said.
Mr Hogan added that this approach could lead to the public being duped by officials trying to cover up losses made on property developments and it would allow wrongdoing to go unchecked.