The cross-examination of witnesses appearing before the Oireachtas sub-committee inquiry into cost overruns in the mini CTC has begun.
Appearing on behalf of the family of the late chief executive of CIÉ, Patrick Rowan has accused PriceWaterhouseCooper executives of failing to spot problems with the mini-CTC signalling system when they audited CIÉ accounts in 1997 and 1998.
Mr Rowan put it to Peter Lacey of PWC that their usual high standards had fallen in 1997 and 1998. He contended that the audits were not approached in a manner that would have identified the problems with mini CTC.
The question was totally rejected by Mr Lacey, who said that it was based on a false premise. Mr Lacey said the purpose of an audit was to examine accounts, and PWC took the view in 1997 and 1998 that expenditure on mini-CTC was relatively modest in nature.
He said that this was vouched for by an internal audit and did not carry a significant risk to overall accounts. He said he stood by the procedures used to assess risk over the two years.
Pat Mangan of the Department of Public Enterprise told the sub-committee that, in his opinion, it is not the job of the Department to assess the commercial value of CIÉ contracts. He said that as this was a matter for CIÉ, the Department would have relied on material to that effect submitted by CIÉ.
