An investigation into the use of public money by the Ulster Camogie Council (UCC) should have been treated as suspected fraud, the North's auditor general said today.
The allegations centred on the failure of the body to account for how it spent STG£14,754 of nearly £50,000 of grant aid supplied by the North's Sports Council between 2000-2008.
A whistleblower alleged that fraudulent claims for coaching sessions had been supplied to the Sports
Council, but some funds were repaid by the Central Camogie Council and the matter was referred to by government officials as an "irregularity".
Northern Ireland comptroller and auditor general Kieran Donnelly was critical of the handling of the incident and queried how the camogie group was handed funding despite a failure to supply audited accounts for three years.
He told the Sports Council and the relevant department, the North's Department of Culture, that they were obliged to carefully monitor the use of public money.
He said that an internal report on the issue revealed it took 18 months to investigate the matter.
The auditor said: "During the investigation it was found that over the period 2000-08 a total of £48,502 was paid to UCC by Sports Council.
"Of this, £14,754 has been deemed irregular because UCC were unable to provide evidence of
associated expenditure. This includes £1,690.50 relating to invoices that were allegedly falsified. This appears to substantiate a specific allegation made by the whistleblower.
"In addition to this, the investigation concluded that Sports Council did not receive audited accounts
from UCC for the financial years 2004-05, 2005-06 and 2006-07, thereby contravening the standard
terms and conditions of awards made by Sports Council.
"Despite this, Sports Council continued to pay grant aid throughout this period and made a further offer of a grant to UCC for the year 2007-08."
The auditor found that Central Camogie Council identified irregularities in 2007 and repaid £5,469 in 2008 on behalf of UCC.
Mr Donnelly said the Department of Culture found there was insufficient evidence to suggest fraud, but the auditor said the controls on allocating grant aid had not been observed.
He added: "In conclusion, whilst we recognise that DCAL (Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure)
had sought to learn the lessons from this investigation, it is our view that the shortcomings identified
above indicate that this investigation could have been handled more effectively and should have been considered as fraud at an early point."
PA