Fás inquiry to be agreed after committee meets

TERMS OF reference for an investigation by the Comptroller and Auditor General into the State training agency Fás will not be decided until after the Public Accounts Committee discusses the issue next month.

Tánaiste Mary Coughlan told Fine Gael spokesman on enterprise Leo Varadkar that the Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley was "anxious" to wait for the committee's meeting before finalising the terms of reference. Senior Fás executives are to be called before the committee in hearings that could last a few days.

Mr Varadkar expressed concern that the inquiry would be limited to the corporate affairs section of Fás. He said it appeared the "irregularities, problems and mismanagement of Fás go much further than corporate affairs and I would not like to see one department of the organisation hung or scapegoated". Mr Buckley should look in particular at the in-company training and services-to-business department of Fás, he believed.

If he believed after the committee met that there was a need to examine something further "I am sure he will take that into consideration," the Minister said.

She pointed out that there had been many internal audits into Fás activities and projects funded by the agency and "some have shown up irregularities and possible occasions of fraud". Two cases had been referred to the Garda.

Some internal audits had also indicated areas where management or financial controls could be improved. The director general of Fás had confirmed that unacceptable practices had stopped and adequate control systems were now in place.

Ms Coughlan said however that to address "wider continuing concerns about the management and control systems in place generally", she had decided there should be an external investigation.