Secret plan to manage hospital fallout made last August
Efforts to clampdown on and control negative publicity around the spiralling costs of the National Children’s Hospital began last August, when the scale of the overrun became apparent to those responsible for delivering it.
In addition to those close to the project being asked to sign a confidentiality agreement, different scenarios for controlling the bad news about the hospital overspend were war-gamed with public relations firm Q4PR.
Confidential minutes of the joint construction and finance sub-committee of the National Paediatric Hospital Development Board (NPHDB) of August 30 show serious unease about escalating costs and the efforts that got under way to keep the news under wraps.
The meeting took place three days after Health Minister Simon Harris was told of a potential overspend of €391m.
Sinn Féin TD Jonathan O’Brien, a member of the Public Accounts Committee, said the minutes show that the subcommittee was discussing “whether the State could now afford the project and whether it was right to go forward with the project” just days after briefing Mr Harris.
“These were discussions that belonged at the Cabinet, but which failed to reach Government until three months later,” Mr O’Brien said.
In the meantime, meetings took place with Q4PR to war-game two scenarios: That main contractors BAM be allowed continue to Phase B of the project — the overground works — or that BAM not be allowed proceed and the Phase B stage would go back to tender.
Ultimately, BAM was awarded Phase B, although in recent days the construction firm offered to opt out followingd comments by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar that some contractors were “low-balling”, or coming in with cheap bids, with intent to recoup costs later.
The August minutes show that the board was to discuss its communications strategy in relation to a guaranteed maximum price (GMP), in other words, the final cost of the hospital. This process had been ongoing for many months as contractors and designers attempted to reach agreement on final design and cost.
Mr O’Brien said it was “also striking that any of the benefits that had been thought to come from a two-stage procurement process evaporated in those months”.
The minutes also show how attempts to replace expensive design items, such as glass balustrades, with cheaper alternatives, such as perforated metal, were pointless because only items originally tendered for were available at 2016 tender rates.
Ultimately, the hospital would still cost as much, if not more, even if lower quality materials were used.
Against this backdrop, 25 people who attended the sub- committee meeting were asked to sign a confidentiality agreement by the former chair of the NPHDB, Tom Costello.
They included eight key members of the design team and all but one member of the development board, who was absent.
Citing the “highly commercially sensitive” nature of the discussions, Mr Costello asked all present to sign the agreement to ensure that “no issues” in relation to the main contractor BAM, leaked out, or in relation to the construction budget.
The information was to be kept within the group so that no-one knew “outside of the people that need to know”.
Less than a month previously, Mr Costello had said he felt the two-stage tender process they had used was “a robust system”The following month, NPHDB member and government chief procurement officer Paul Quinn queried “if the right expertise was available within the Design Team for the next phase of the project”.Mr Quinn has previously warned in January that it was “important that effective Governance is in place to manage and control the project including any change within the funding envelope set by Government”.
Meanwhile, Independent TD Michael Harty has said he intends to vote against the Government in Sinn Fein’s vote of no confidence in Mr Harris tomorrow.
Dr Harty, who is chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health, had intended to abstain. However, he said last night he had changed his mind in the wake of news that a 60-bed unit at University Hospital Limerick has been delayed until at least mid-2020. He said Mr Harris “has repeatedly indicated that funding would be provided to allow the unit to be completed by autumn 2019”.
