I propose to take Questions Nos. 153 and 154 together.
NAMA has appointed two panels of Loan Sale Advisors for both Europe (including UK) and the US to assist the agency in selling acquired loans that are linked to assets in those markets. There are 13 firms on the Europe panel and 10 firms on the US panel. Seven firms are common to both panels, which means that there are 16 firms in total.
NAMA informs me that particular loan sale assignments will be allocated following competitive mini-tenders within each of the panels.
NAMA advises me that there are some officers in the Agency who have worked for firms on one or both panels. NAMA also advises me that, given its remit under the NAMA Act, it must recruit staff with the requisite experience and expertise and that it would not therefore be possible to recruit officers who have not worked with firms on NAMA panels, particularly given the breadth of activities with which the larger law and accountancy firms are involved.
The key issue, however, is that NAMA takes steps to ensure conflicts of interest do not occur. Under Section 42 of the NAMA Act, before he or she is assigned to NAMA, each officer is required to provide a statement of his or her interests, assets and liabilities to the Chief Executive Officer of NAMA and the Chief Executive of NTMA. Furthermore, a key item for any NAMA evaluation group for procurement of services is a declaration by each member that they have no conflict of interest. NAMA advises me that this enables the Agency to ensure
that potential conflicts of interest in the management of the loan portfolios are managed effectively; and
that staff do not participate in decisions which may involve the allocation of work to companies for which they worked previously.
As regards the sale of US or European loans, NAMA will shortly begin the process of identifying certain segments of its loan portfolio for sale. NAMA advises that the volume and timing of actual sales will depend on whether NAMA considers that market bids represent good value for the taxpayer in any particular instance.