Castlerea Prison in Co Roscommon was completed at a cost of £14.34 million even though the original design and building cost was £12.7 million, the report said. It says the £250,000 provision for a sewerage connection and the £247,500 for additional spaces were not included in the tender proposals received from the successful applicant. "In this regard I noted that the contractor expressly excluded any local authority charges from his tender bid, contrary to the tender document requirement," it said.
A Department of Justice accounting officer said originally an onsite sewerage system was not envisaged, but it was eventually adopted because neither of the public sewerage options was feasible. The officer said the proposal to provide additional spaces was not made by the contractor in his tender because his price was based strictly on the tender documentation supplied. The officer said the proposal was made separately on the contractor's initiative and represented "good value for money and should therefore be availed of".
The report also noted that the original estimate for the Castlerea Prison perimeter wall was £3.75 million. However the work was completed at a cost of £1.2 million by a contractor who was not originally short-listed to tender for the job.