APPENDIX 2
PRIVATISATION OF BELFAST INTERNATIONAL
AIRPORT (PAC 97-98/107)
Supplementary Memorandum from the Department
of Finance & Personnel (Northern Ireland)
Question 119
Disclosure of Consultants Costs
1. The Committee asked that the £3.4 million
total for consultants' fees should be disaggregated. The disaggregation
of the £3.4 million consultancy costs incurred in the sale
of the airport was made available to, and subject to scrutiny
by, NIAO in the course of their examination. The Department of
the Environment (NI) has included this breakdown in a separate
note to the Committee.
2. DFP's request, referred to in paragraph 6.2
of the NIAO Report, related only to whether the disaggregation
of the £3.4 million should be published, not to whether
the information should be available to the NIAO or the Committee.
The request was based on UK-wide policy and was not rooted in
the specifics of the NIAL case.
3. It is well established practice, throughout
the UK, that fees paid to individual advisers by public bodies
are not disclosed. In addition to the NIAL case, NAO reports on
recent sales have published aggregated fees for various elements
of the sale costs (underwriting, marketing etc) but not amounts
paid to individual firms. DFP has consulted the Treasury and it
remains the view of Government that disclosure would make it significantly
more difficult to get value in future advisory appointments because
candidates would use the information in pitching their tenders
and in fee negotiations. For these reasons we would request that
the Committee does not include the disaggregated information in
the published Minutes of Evidence or Report.
Department of Finance & Personnel (NI)
9 January 1998
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