FÁS:THE GARDA Bureau of Fraud Investigations was called in following audits of a training provider funded by Skillnets and Fás, according to the Comptroller Auditor General's report.
The training provider was not identified in the report.
The inquiry into the trainer began after anonymous allegations were received in February of this year.
An inquiry by Skillnets found instances of training courses that did not take place despite trainee profile sheets and signed attendance sheets being on file.
Waterford Institute of Technology certificates were also found on file as evidence of training which it was later decided were not genuine or were not signed by authorised officials.
The trainer was paid €319,520 for 24 training courses but the inquiry found eight of the courses had not been delivered.
However, Skillnets believes the maximum loss of public funds arising from the trainer will be €59,645, according to the comptroller’s report.
Skillnets notified Fás in February 2010 about the trainer. The training provider had received Fás contracts worth €658,498 in the 2003-2010 period.
The comptroller said the potential loss of public funds from this cannot yet be accurately estimated.
Skillnets and Fás commission trainers to provide training to people who are in employment.
Skillnets had a policy of monitoring each network of enterprises involved in organising training on a two yearly cycle. However, while 16 monitoring or finance visits were carried out in 2008, only two were carried out in 2009 and one this year.
“According to Skillnets the increased workload and reduced staff resources caused by funding reductions impacted on its ability to complete finance visits.”
The organisation has now decided it must visit each network each year and new systems of control are to be introduced.
The report said the experience with the trainer under investigation has illustrated the dangers involved in letting a provider have too active a role in the delivery and financial management of training.
Skillnets is fully funded by the National Training Fund, which comes from a levy on employers.
The board of Skillnets is made up of employer and employee representatives as well as nominees of the Minister for Education.