Suspended Fás executive tells Dáil committee he is being 'scapegoated'

SUSPENDED FÁS executive Greg Craig has said an attempt has been made to "scapegoat" him for the failings of the organisation as a whole.

In a lengthy written submission sent yesterday to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr Craig said evidence heard by the committee during hearings last year was "inaccurate" and damaged his professional reputation.

He also sent a copy of his 88- page submission to the Auditor and Comptroller General (CAG) John Buckley, and to Eddie O'Sullivan, recently appointed interim director general of Fás.

He described the Fás internal audit document that has led to the ongoing controversy regarding expenditure controls at the authority as a "flawed document". He said he and his staff have never commented on the report either in its draft or final form.

In his document, Mr Craig said the CAG's office conducted a review in 2007 of the Fás internal audit report without speaking to him or any of his staff at the corporate affairs division, even though it was the subject of the internal audit report.

He said that in the new inquiry being launched by the CAG's office into Fás, its officials "must be allowed to engage directly with both myself . . . and all my staff in the corporate affairs division.

"Fás senior management was aware of all the activities and work programmes of the Fás corporate affairs division. Fás failed to provide adequate financial management resources to deal with an increase over a 12-year period of an advertising budget from £100,000 to circa €9 million, despite many requests from the corporate affairs division."

The PAC initiated an inquiry into Fás after its attention was drawn to an internal audit report concerning alleged breaches of procurement rules and other matters, by the training authority's corporate affairs division over a period of years. Mr Craig was director of the division for the period concerned.

The PAC sought the report after some of its findings were referred to by the CAG. An interim report based on its hearings is due to be published by the PAC shortly.

A number of senior Fás officials appeared before the committee last year and the former director general of the organisation, Rody Molloy, resigned as a result of the controversy over expenditure by the authority.

However, Mr Craig has not appeared before the committee, despite an invitation to do so. He was suspended on full pay soon after he was due to return to work after an extended period of sick leave and has said he does not want to appear before the committee until he has had unsupervised access to his working files.

Mr Craig in his submission said the board of Fás had over a period of years approved the appointment of advertising agencies, which were in turn given authority to procure services relating to advertising, marketing, public relations and event management.

"There was no requirement to apply the normal procurement processes," he said.