The Planning Authority was not able to provide key documentation on specific direct orders to the National Audit Office, a report auditing the planning regulator’s core information technology functions has found. 

The report, published by the NAO on Monday, looked at the authority’s key IT functions and selected aspects of its document management. 

While an overall ICT strategy was lacking, the audit office recommended that a formal strategic plan for all its information technology solutions be drafted “in the coming years”. 

The audit office found that the PA’s document management relating to direct orders “deviated from generally accepted practices” and when requesting key documentation on a specific direct order, the information was not made available to the NAO. The review could not determine whether it was misplaced or had simply not been compiled. 

The NAO had requested information about a €150,000 direct order for the provision of technical guidance for the preparation and assessment of safety reports according to a European directive.

“This review noted two other cases where contracts relating to direct orders were not made available to the NAO.

"Although one would expect that the PA would maintain the full documentation, the NAO sought to retrieve such documentation through other government entities but to no avail. This implies that the documentation may not have been drawn up at the outset,” the report said. 

The other two direct orders awarded €117,000 for services to benchmark the authority's reputation and €16,900 for engineering consultancy services. 

The NAO also recommended that the PA carries out a thorough internal review of its document management related to administrative functions, and to establish an organisation-wide document retention policy with similar principles to those adopted in the management of permit applications. 

The report also found that the authority was not making best use of its social media presence and should use its platforms to further publicise press notices published in the Government Gazette.