Four years after the Comptroller and Auditor General warned about the lack of legal agreements concerning schools on land not owned by the state, the C&AG says little progress has been made.
In it's report today the C&AG said the State has invested significant funds in the schools estate over many years, including in the 85% of schools that are located on lands not owned by the State
The Comptroller said the "State's capital investment in the provision of some new schools/extensions has not been formally secured due to the absence of effective and appropriate legal agreements with patron bodies".
This exposure was previously reported on, in the C&AG annual report in September 2020.
"The development of new legal agreements since the publication of the previous report indicates that there has been some effort to improve the protection of the State’s interest, but progress has been slow".
The C&AG said a system of charging leases was put in place as a means of protecting the Minister’s interests in the schools located on patron-owned sites and said an examination team found that charging leases were not always in place as expected, or that leases put in place had in fact expired.
If the lease has expired, he said the Minister’s interest has also expired.
Legally, the patron does not need to apply to have the Minister’s interest removed from the site.
The CAG said in 2004 the Chief State Solicitor’s Office proposed the implementation of deeds of covenant and charge as a more appropriate mechanism to secure the Minister’s interest in building projects on patron-owned sites.
But he said "In the 20 years since, this mechanism has not been implemented".
The Comptroller recommended that the Department expedite the development of the proposed legal agreements as a means of protecting the Minister’s investments recommending "that these are implemented as a matter of urgency".
The Department told the C&AG that it has advanced planning in place to implement a single master agreement (which will take the form of a deed of covenant) at individual patron level to protect the Minister’s investment in all school properties on patron/trusteeowned sites including those covered by the historical charging leases
Another recommendation is that the Department of Education liaises with the Department of PublicExpenditure to develop a policy for the valuation of schools built on Minister owned sites, which the Department has agreed to.
