Nama last year sold the debt secured on the first of these sites – the former John Player cigarette factory on the South Circular Road – to US property investor Hines in a refinancing deal, and no longer has control of it after being in control of it for a decade.Nama was given an expanded brief in 2014 to facilitate the delivery of residential units amid the emerging housing crisis. It has directly funded the provision of 8,000 units since then, and provided sites for a further 2,500.
The committee will also criticise the oversight of Nama’s conflict-of-interest system, designed to prevent assets being sold by Nama from being purchased by people who owe money to the agency, or other “associated debtors”. Nama requires those purchasing assets to sign a declaration that they have no connection to the assets being purchased which would contravene the relevant section of the Nama Act, section 172. However, PAC is set to strongly criticise Nama for a perceived failure to verify that the forms are accurately completed.
“The lack of systematic and routine verification of section 172 declarations was unacceptable,” according to the committee discussion document, which recommends that Nama put in place a system to verify the declarations it receives.The discussion document, drawn up to inform PAC’s conclusions on a range of topics on which it held hearings last year, also makes recommendations about the oversight of the €2.
The document states PAC’s view is that it is “unacceptable” the internal audit committee overseeing this budget did not meet prior to 2018, and adds that a report of the audit committee should be published annually.