Another day at the DDDA circus

Minister for Environment and Local Government John Gormley has today published the two consultants reports’ into the planning and finance functions at the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (which were previously published in draft form by Fine Gael) and has also accepted — 5 months later — Fine Gael’s proposal that the DDDA should be subject to oversight of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Office.  That’s 5 more months during which a further report of “past mistakes … changes already made … move along folks” can be put together. 

Both reports are worth reading although one has to keep a chart handy of all the players to remember how incestuous this was … the ubiquitous NQIL is in fact the Liam Carroll vehicle that was going to build a new headquarters for Anglo Irish Bank, which was the lender for the Irish Glass Bottle site, which got an open-ended guarantee on that loan ultimately approved by Brian Cowen …who later gave their entire balance sheet an open-ended guarantee … it goes on and on.

Anyway, Ray King’s report looks the Irish Glass Bottle site purchase and in amid the matter-of-fact description of this disastrous transaction, we learn –

Before entering into this Joint Venture the Executive Board obtained legal advice from A & L Goodbody and tax advice from Price Waterhouse Coopers … A draft of a valuation prepared in November 2006 for the financial institutions by CB Richard Ellis Gunne exists, although it is not clear whether this is the final document. A further valuation was prepared by the same company in January 2008.

One assumes that in the current lessons-learned situation we are in, that Goodbody, PwC, and CBRE Gunne have provided satisfactory explanations of their roles before being given any further business by the government.