Inefficiency, overspending and waste on a grand scale. The report for 2004 from Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell makes depressing if familiar reading.
It conveys an image of parts of the public service lacking the determination and capacity to get value for money and of Government ministers apparently unconcerned and unmoved by the weaknesses involved. That some public servants fail to manage expenditure casts an unfair shadow over their more effective colleagues. That governments of all political hues have failed to take responsibility for such failings constitutes a betrayal of taxpayers.
Some of the examples of financial mismanagement identified by Mr Purcell and his team can be explained. Even the most thought-through plans can go awry with no fault attaching to the individuals involved. Infrastructural projects, particularly road-building, can soar in cost over time, due mainly to the rising cost of property and construction. In other cases, specifications may be altered or upgraded for perfectly valid reasons and in these circumstances the original cost estimates may well be exceeded.
But there have been some very expensive mistakes and failures. For instance, the demise of MediaLab Europe, which lasted only four years, cost the State €40 million and there is no hope of retrieving the € 10.6 million which was paid by the Government to its partners in the project.
One item which the Comptroller and Auditor General might investigate in the coming months is the €50 million squandered on the electronic voting system, the indefinite shelving of which was confirmed on Monday - at a time which conveniently coincided with IRA decommissioning hogging the headlines. The Government's approach to the electronic voting debacle is indicative of an arrogance that beggars belief.
In the meantime, welfare fraud continues. Mr Purcell reckons that the use of bogus PPS numbers could be costing the State €50 million a year. However, welfare cheats - if caught - do face the consequences. Some 476 cases of fraud were forwarded and prison sentences were secured in 36 cases.Would that the same was the case for tax cheats. The Revenue Commissioners, to their credit, brought in more than €2 billion in taxes, interest and penalties in 2004. Tax evasion is clearly widespread. Yet, just 13 files were submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions and only one - suspended - prison sentence came about. Tax cheats can only be encouraged to continue what is often sustained and systematic evasion when the ultimate sanction of loss of liberty is imposed on such an infrequent basis.