The 2007 annual report from the Comptroller and Auditor General, who oversees state expenditure, has highlighted shortcomings in how public money has been spent.
Overall, John Buckley found that the state's finances had suffered a serious downturn. In 2007, he recorded a deficit of €1.6 billion, compared to a surplus of €2 billion in 2006.
John Buckley's report expresses concern about a number of areas of state expenditure. He criticises the continuing payment of special border duty allowances to defence forces personnel - long after the original reason for their existance no longer applied.
He highlights the An Post Savings Stamps Scheme that cost €1m a year to administer - despite generating less than €4.5m annually.
He also says that over €9m was advanced to local bodies for flood relief - despite the fact that it will not be utilised until 2009.
Mr Buckley also raises concerns about the lack of competitive processes in the procurement of goods and services in the prison service. He highlights the fact that Garda vehicles were not deployed for a year after they were purchased.
The report found that the state had to pay An Post over €14.5m for free election postage for Oireachtas members, because it could not claim bulk mail discounts available to ordinary clients of An Post.
Mr Buckley says that if the bulk discounts that An Post advertises to its other customers been available, the exchequer could have saved between €1.5m and €3.3m on the bill for TD's and Senators' election literature.
Mr Buckley's report strongly criticised the HSE for its delay in addressing a 2007 budget overrun of €245m.
The report shows that by November 2006, the HSE knew that its 2007 allocation for existing services would be around €341m short of what it had sought, and that consequently it would have to find savings of this amount.
However, Mr Buckley says HSE senior management did not direct any specific action to secure these savings until July 2007, when it prepared a breakeven plan.
Loss of revenue
Today's report expresses concern about the loss of revenue to the Exchequer from unpaid taxes and PRSI. A total of €118m of taxes and PRSI was written off during 2007.
The largest single amount written off in 2007 was €2.9m in respect of PAYE, PRSI and VAT owed by a group of companies in the recruitment industry, which had gone into receivership.
The report also noted particular concerns about overall tax compliance by the security industry - where €6.7m was written off from the overall sector. It noted widescale non-compliance.
It also noted the Revenue Commissioners made an undisclosed voluntary settlement with the Inspector of Taxes in November 2007. The settlement related to a liability of almost €1.7m in unpaid Benefit in Kind (BIK) by Revenue's own staff.
The CAG observed the Revenue, in its capacity as employer, did not adequately consider the potential impact of the BIK legislation on its own operations.
