THE DÁIL Public Accounts Committee is to publish an interim report on its inquiry into financial matters at Fás within the next fortnight.
It is understood that the committee will be make findings on expenditure within the State agency and also make recommendations to Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley, who is also carrying out an inquiry.
Mr Buckley’s powers are wider than the committee’s.
The PAC chairman, Cork North Central Fine Gael TD Bernard Allen, said yesterday that it would “not be closing the books on Fás’’ after the publication of its interim report.
Meanwhile, suspended Fás executive Greg Craig returns to work today. Initially, he was on sick leave, but he was suspended on full pay last November.
The inquiry was initiated as a result of an internal audit report detailing a series of alleged breaches of procurement rules in the Fás corporate affairs division involving substantial amounts of money.
Mr Craig was the director of the division during the period concerned. He had a budget of about €50 million at his disposal in the period 2002-2004.
His union, Siptu, backed him in his campaign to be reinstated, arguing that his suspension was in breach of established disciplinary procedures within the agency.
Mr Craig told The Irish Times last December that everything he did was in pursuit of official policy and known to his superiors. He said the agency had acknowledged he had not benefited personally from any of the expenditure matters investigated by the PAC.
He criticised the internal audit report which led to the PAC inquiry being established.
In a submission to the PAC last month, Mr Craig claimed that an attempt had been made to “scapegoat’’ him for the failings of the organisation as a whole.
He also sent a copy of his 88-page submission to Mr Buckley and the interim director general of Fás, Eddie O’Sullivan.
The former director general, Rody Molloy, resigned as a result of the controversy over expenditure by the authority.
Mr Molloy told the PAC in December that he knew his position in Fás was untenable after an “ill-judged’’ radio interview with RTÉ’s Pat Kenny in which he defended spending by Fás executives and being “entitled’’ to first-class travel to the US.
