DCAL Minister Responds To Lyric 'Rigging' Report

Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín has released a statement following a publishing of a report that said the £11m contract to rebuild the Lyric Theatre in Belfast was "significantly flawed".

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report examined the management of seven capital projects during the 2008-11 Programme for Government.

Carál Ní Chuilín said: "I welcome the recommendations contained in this report. These will ensure that we apply the lessons learnt around the spending of public money.

"The Department was aware of the issues that had arisen with previous capital projects and did not wait for the publication of the NI Audit Office (NIAO) report before putting arrangements in place to ensure the same problems were not encountered on future projects.

"I am assured that these improvements have been for the better and I am confident that the capital projects we are currently involved in are being managed in a different way to how they have been managed previously by the Department and its Arms Length Bodies."

DCAL and the Arts Council provided 84% or £87.4m of the investment for the seven projects.

The cost of the rebuild of the Belfast theatre was £17.8m, £5m over the initial estimate.

DCAL paid £12.2m of the bill.

The committee found a number of "unexplained adjustments" were made to the tender submissions for the Lyric, which meant that the most expensive tender, Gilbert Ash, was awarded the contract.

The report said this "is not normal practice".

"It is of paramount importance that we apply best practice procurement and project management in all of the projects we are responsible for, to ensure that value for money is achieved," the Minister added.

Finance Minister Simon Hamilton said: "In the case of the Lyric Theatre this project was grant funded and therefore it was not managed or procured by CPD. The project was actually managed and the contractor procured by consultants appointed by the Lyric Theatre.

"The consultants had full responsibility for assessing tenders and for awarding the contract. It is therefore a matter of serious concern to me that these external professional advisers were not able to demonstrate to the Northern Ireland Audit Office that they had applied best practice.

"As Finance Minister, I am very much aware of how critical it is that best practice procurement and project management are applied to the delivery of projects if value for money is to be achieved.

"The key to this is ensuring that the right expertise is deployed to make informed decisions throughout the project lifecycle. This PAC report recognises that there is a wealth of technical advice available to departments through CPD."

(IT/JP)