THE NORTH’S PUBLIC Accounts Committee has found that the rights to rebuild Belfast’s Lyric Theatre were awarded in a “significantly flawed” way.
The committee’s report criticises the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure (DCAL), the Arts Council and the Government’s own Central Procurement Directorate (CPD).
The committee says that they were left with a strong impression that the outcome had been “rigged and manipulated”.
The chairperson of the committee, Michaela Boyle MLA said that while there is no complaints about the rebuild itself, the award of the contract for £11 million of the £18 million project had to be questioned.
“The quality of the rebuilt Lyric Theatre is undisputed; we recognise that it is a highly impressive theatre and that it has deservedly won a number of prestigious awards. However, the end does not justify the means.
“My committee has found that there were significant departures from good practice in the award of this £11 million contract, and this is completely unacceptable.”
The committee found that a number of unexplained adjustments were made to the tender submissions, which resulted in the most expensive tender being successful.
The report showed that the £413,000 of adjustments stripped from the tender was later paid in full, but DCAL was unable to provide an explanation for this.
The contract was awarded to Gilbert Ash Limited, who the report says jumped from fifth to first in the bidding and gave a donation of £150,000 to the theatre.
The committee found that the Arts Council and department both failed to discharge their duty.
Gilbert Ash say that they had no control over changes to the tender process that resulted in their leaping up the bidding list.
They added that they made the donation to “positively impacting the community”.
The Lyric Theatre called the findings “wholly unevidenced”.
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