THE DÁIL’S public accounts committee yesterday called for an immediate freeze on funds in the contentious Siptu national health and local authority levy fund account.
Committee chairman Bernard Allen of Fine Gael said once investigations had been completed, all public funds in the account at the centre of the Skill training funds controversy should be returned to the exchequer. “The committee’s view is that any abuse of State funds is inappropriate . . . There’s now a need to follow up on those who were responsible so that they repay the State, even where these officials have since retired,” Mr Allen said.
In a statement responding to Mr Allen’s comments, Siptu said that when it gained control of the account in August, it was “immediately frozen and will remain so”.
Mr Allen said the public accounts committee would “get to the bottom of what has already been described as a slush fund which was under the control of senior union officials who worked in unison with senior public servants.
“All of this . . . was rubber-stamped by a steering group that was established to develop courses for low-paid workers in the health sector. What emerged at our meeting last week, relating to breaches of controls, lavish expenditure on taxies and foreign travel . . . are truly shocking and those responsible for this will have to be held to account.”
The committee agreed to write to Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan outlining its demands. It will also write to six individuals, named at the committee, inviting them to give evidence.
Mr Allen said letters would be sent to the retired general manager of Skill, Alan Smith, trustees of the account Matt Merrigan and Jack Kelly, chairman of the steering group Bill Atlee, retired finance official Tom Dowling and retired Department of Health official Frank Ahern.
Separately, Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley briefed the committee on the procurement of goods and services by Government bodies, with reference to his annual report last year.
Mr Buckley said annual returns for Government departments and offices for 2009 indicated payments were made under at least 473 contracts that were concluded without competition. “These contracts had a reported value of over €69 million . . . This was a moderate reduction in both the number and value of non-competitive procurement payments, relative to the situation in 2008.”
He said returns for the HSE were not complete for 2009, “and that area I will be reviewing in depth in . . . the coming audit”.
The Irish Prison Service continues to have the highest level of contracts awarded without competitive process, with expenditure of €22 million on 154 contracts in 2009, Mr Buckley said.
The Department of Finance is working with the service to reduce the extent to which it has recourse to non-competitive procurement, he added.
Mr Buckley said more than €17 million was reported to have been spent on what he described as “proprietary goods” without a tendering competition.
On the record: committee seeking five documents
- The report on the investigation being conducted by Turlough O'Sullivan into the Skill programme.
- A copy of the internal audit report being prepared in the Department of Finance.
- A copy of the report that has been commissioned by Siptu into the operation of the Siptu National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund Account.
- A copy of the internal audit report currently being prepared in the HSE on the Health Services Partnership Forum.
- The committee previously sought information from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government on the funding that was lodged into this account by that department.
