Picture of the Week
This was the week when BBC Northern Ireland broadcast a Spotlight special on Sean Quinn’s former property empire, a programme which brought presenter Jim Fitzpatrick on a global trek tracking down assets and companies to which the assets had been controversially transferred. In Belize City, the capital of the small central American country of Belize, Jim tracked down the registered office of a company called Galfis which has acquired a €100m Moscow office block in circumstances which are the subject of ongoing court proceedings. The registered office turns out to be a mailbox in the hallway of an anonymous post office. Now this registered office of a €100m international company might surprise you, but who knows, perhaps behind the door exists a science fiction world like that in the locker in “Men in Black 2”, remember?
Any resemblance between the science fiction world of Lowell Cunningham and what is happening with the former Quinn property empire would be purely coincidental.
Quote of the Week
“There isn’t a country of the 17 euro countries at present who could carry this in a referendum, there isn’t a single country bar Ireland. If we can carry this that will send a signal out to Europe.” Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan speaking to Bloomberg on 16th May, 2012 seemingly conceding Ireland is extraordinary amongst Europeans in having a voting population which might – or might not – vote for the Fiscal Compact in the referendum on 31st May
“I suppose we will have to say that we will need access to this fund and I think Ireland will be looking to say can we vote again, because we will need access to this fund” Minister for Jobs, Innovation and Enterprise Richard Bruton stating what some would say was the bleedin’ obvious but which was nonetheless promptly retracted by Fine Gael
“Apart from the Greek islands, I think most Irish people do not have a lot . . if you go into the shops here, apart from feta cheese, how many Greek items do you put in your basket?” Minister for Finance Michael Noonan on Bloomberg describing the economic links between Greece and Ireland, and omitting olives, olive oil and fruit. Oh and the €345.702m that we loaned to Greece as part of its first bailout in 2010.
Public sector procurement exercise of the Week
When the bank now known as IBRC – formerly known as Anglo and INBS, and 100% owned by you, the taxpayer – published a tender for the fit-out of 52 apartments in central Dublin for rental, eyebrows were raised at the prospect of IBRC getting into the property rental business. Although the precise address of the Dublin 1 building has not been confirmed, it is speculated that it is the Liam Carroll Liffey Trust building next to The Point. What expertise has IBRC in renting property, we wondered. And this week we have been wondering what expertise IBRC has in procurement, as the Q&A and additional tender documents and the extension of the bid deadline seemed to indicate IBRC hasn’t a clue. Here are the latest Q&A for the tender.
What next, will we be able to turn up at the IBRC HQ and ask for a spice burger and a can of Fanta?
Runner-up goes to NAMA which is seemingly on the look-out for a “Relationship Officer”. Seems that former CIF communication director, Martin Whelan recruited by NAMA in January, is set to get an underling. By the way, you’d never know from the NAMA recruitment website that there was a vacancy, the only present “vacancy” shown on that site being an invitation of general applications to be considered at some unspecified future date. It was the businesspost.ie website which reported the vacancy. So great to see NAMA being transparent and efficient in its recruitment activity!
Table of the Week
Here is the recent history of mortgage lending in Ireland as recorded by Irish Banking Federation which represents “well over 95%” of banks providing mortgage lending in the State. Yesterday’s release of Q1,2012 figures was quite shocking, because for all the talk of banks bulking up their mortgage lending, there was a dramatic decline from what was already a low base.
NAMA Wine Lake 
Mother of God, but that procurement carry-on is infantile and depressing. I cannot begin to imagine the farce that the contract will turn into – how many windows ? FFS !!! Tender for a professional to assess the work, get a bill of bloody quantities, and do it properly. And save money, and time, rather than throw it away. And do you see the phone number ? One wonders if they’ve even the wit to keep tenderers secret from one another !! One thing is for sure : rejected tenderers will probably have a rich mine of incompetence to delve into to challenge the result. And cost more money !
“How many of each apartment type are there ?” Small public toilets are tendered better than this.
“The registered office turns out to be a mailbox in the hallway of an anonymous post office. Now this registered office of a €100m international company might surprise you…”
Otherwise,commonly know as a PO Box,fair play to Jim for traveling all that way to show us a PO Box.The interaction with the ‘natives’ specifically the gentleman regarding directions to said post office was a little gratuitous.
He could have strolled down the banks of the Liffey to the IFC and found lots of similar PO Box companies or ‘nameplate’ situations.
Think General Re,Sachsen and Depfra.
But yes confined that Bekize has a post office with PO Boxes !
For me, one of the more interesting broadcasts of the week was the John Murray interview with Joe Moran of Manor Park Homes, the company that bought Abbeville from Charlie Haughey.
The interview was supposed to be about the forthcoming European Bridge Championship, which was organised by Joe. Instead the obvious happened and John Murray questioned him on the Manor Park receivership. It was Yesterday’s Story, but Joe is a gentleman and answered stupid and badly informed questions politely and honestly.
Joe has no involvement with NAMA, but his opinions on it are relevant. His only mistake was one made by most apologists for those who borrowed too heavily, “We all did it. And we are all responsible”. No, Joe. Many did, but not all. And not everyone is responsible. It’s the most irritating apologia for the national debt disaster.
John’s suggestion that Joe Moran should pay a couple of hundred million to Lloyd’s bank when the money was owed by Manor Park and he had no personal guarantees shows John’s naiveté (or his ability to play to the page 3 media audience).
It’s not about asking Joe Moran whether he intends to pay the best part of €200 million that he doesn’t have and doesn’t owe from his back pocket. John missed the point and turned what could have been an insightful interview into tabloid nonsense – because Joe Moran is a man with something worthwhile to say.
Rather than deride him, It’s a pity that John Murray did not suggest that Cowen and Lenihan should have displayed the same commercial acumen as Joe when they undertook to guarantee and pay all the bills of the insolvent Irish banks.
Joe Moran’s take on Charlie Haughey will have upset some, but in all honesty, I’d settle for Charlie Haughey in second gear, taking a few shekels from Ben Dunne than the current crop of incompetents, none of whom are capable of organizing the proverbial party in a brewery. However history may judge him, Charlie at least had a sense of humour – more than can be said of the nation currently. Buried in a new Charvet shirt and tie, he had the last laugh.
Do the media hacks get the full context of it yet – that we have had a debt bubble. The process of raising debt relative to incomes typically lasts for 30 or 40 years. Historically there’s always a last crescendo. In the USA it was 1927 to 1929. In Japan it was 1988 to 1990. We had ours in the two years from 2005 to 2007. That’s the climax of the classic bubble.
And then it takes about 15 years to get back to normal. That’s the task that needs to be addressed. And success is not achieved by austerity or raking over yesterday’s stupidity on radio.
Not my favourite radio personality – John Murray is too snide for me, but it was worth putting up with him to hear Joe Moran’s take on NAMA, the banks and Charlie Haughey.
http://www.rte.ie/radio1/thejohnmurrayshow/2012-05-17.html
@WSTT thanks for the link, looking forward to listening to it,playing cards myself next few days,sorry networking!
Either the IBRC tender is unbelievably incompetent or it is deliberately so as the contract has already been awarded.
This type of procurement is an area in which I have experience and all the questions asked are exactly the type you would expect if you had not prepared detailed specifications showing the window ope measurements, floor areas, room data sheets with elevations of each wall, specification for the paint (e.g. ‘ two coats Dulux eggshell blue or equivalent’), etc.
I wouldn’t be worried about IBRC disclosing phone numbers of questioners. The companies that tender for such work would be familiar with each other anyway.
If I were a tenderer – unless I already had a sweetheart deal for this job – I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole given the lack of certainty about payment.