THE State's seven universities have been accused of misspending public money and operating unsatisfactory procurement procedures by members of the Dail's Committee of Public Accounts.

The committee was discussing the Value for Money Report on Procurement in Universities, submitted by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell, last November.

A Labour TD, Mr Tommy Broughan, described the report as a "damning indictment" of the way the universities had conducted their procurement policies. "This is how our money was spent and it was spent very badly," Mr Broughan told the committee.

The report found "wide variations" in prices paid for similar items both within and between universities, Mr Purcell told the committee. The cost of a computer chair varied from £55 in Trinity College Dublin to £134.40 in the University of Limerick a polypropylene chair cost TCD £7.20 but cost University College Dublin £22.50; and a four foot junior desk was bought for £36 by TCD but cost UL £105. Mr Broughan described it as an incredible state of affairs".

The universities spend about £76 million of their £310 million annual allocation on the procurement of goods and services. The report examined nine categories of goods and services, amounting to £17 million in total, and estimated that savings of between five and 15 per cent could be made through proper procurement procedures.

It was the first time that such a report had been undertaken by the Comptroller and Auditor General, since the universities did not come under his office's remit until a change of legislation in 1993.

Representatives of the seven universities attended yesterday's meeting, at which the main witness was the secretary/chief executive of the Higher Education Authority, Mr John Hayden.

Mr Hayden said that Irish universities were producing world class graduates at a lower cost than universities in other countries, including Britain, and that they gave "value for money".

"I'm not sure you're grasping the enormity of this report," Mr Batt O'Keefe, Fianna Fail, told Mr Hayden. He said savings of between £4 million and £1 million could be made in universities each year if proper procurement procedures were followed. "That's an indictment and it represents a waste of public monies," he said.

"The question here is what exactly, on the basis of this very strident report, are the universities doing to ensure they get value for money for the goods and services they procure?"

Mr Hayden said that the universities welcomed the report but had "some doubts" about certain parts of it. A working group had been established by the chief finance officers of the universities, which would examine the Comptroller and Auditor General's findings and report back to the HEA and the universities by mid June.