Over €1.2m spent by Housing Agency ‘did not comply with guidelines’
A new report by the Housing Agency has said an internal audit identified weaknesses in controls over housing acquisition and sales.
The agency’s 2017 annual report has been laid before the Oireachtas and outlines how over €1.2m was spent on goods and services last year “where procedures employed did not comply with procurement guidelines”.
The report mentions how a gift to the value of €4,000 was given to the retiring chairperson, understood to refer to Conor Skehan, who came in for strong criticism after his reappointment at the start of this year for comments alleging that some people presenting as homeless might be “gaming the system”.
In the report, the agency’s new chairman, Michael Carey, and chief executive John O’Connor writes that 2017 was “an effective period” during which “activity increased across all areas of work”.
It carried out 243 financial assessments to provide 4,102 homes, bought 365 vacant properties for social housing, and sourced 426 homes through Nama, as well as underwriting 1,289 house purchase loan applications and completing and handing over 29 homes in Knocknaheeny in Cork. It also remediated 392 homes under its Pyrite Resolution Scheme.
Mr Carey said: “In respect of procurement during 2017, expenditure of €1.246m was incurred in relation to goods and services where procedures employed did not comply with procurement guidelines. The services employed related to legal services, insurances, and temporary resources.”
The Housing Agency wanted to engage conveyancing services in mid-2015 and liaised with the Office of Government Procurement which was establishing a legal services framework. However, the framework was not established when the agency required the services and was not put in place until December 2016.
“As an interim measure, the agency undertook a restricted tender process,” states the report.
As for insurance costs, there were “significant delays in respect of reselling the properties to approved housing bodies, accordingly, the agency incurred unexpected costs and this did not allow sufficient time to undertake a procurement process”.
It also outlined issues detected in an internal audit.
“Reports conducted by internal audit in 2017 identified weaknesses in controls over the housing acquisition and sales process and information technology.
“The internal audit report noted inadequate liaison between the agency and the [approved housing bodies) prior to the acquisition of properties on their behalf.
“In addition, the report noted that valuations were not always conducted by an independent valuer. The report made a number of recommendations of improvement, all of which were accepted by the agency.”
“An internal audit report completed in 2017 raised a number of concerns in relation to user access management and physical security of IT systems as well as environmental controls in the server room.
“The agency is working to implement all recommendations for improvement included in the internal audit report.”
