Fás internal audit 'interfered with'

An internal audit investigation into Fás was interfered with by senior management at the State training agency, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told today.

A letter received from Terry Corcoran, a senior official at Fás, reveals that management took a big interest in the investigation, which commenced in November 2004 and was completed in July 2005.

"The level of interest from and contract with senior management experienced by Internal Audit in relation to the investigation was unprecedented," the letter said.

It adds that senior management "objected strenuously" to Internal Audit having interviewed external parties and says that there were a lot of topics not covered in the Comptroller and Attorney General's (C&AG) account of processes at Fás.

That report found Fás had proper control processes in place but that a failure to implement them properly had exposed the agency to risk. It also found the executive board of the authority was aware of overspends on advertising and promotion but did not give this information to the board.

Nonetheless, according to the letter sent by Mr Corcoran to the committee, the C&AG failed to take account of many aspects of corporate culture within Fás.

"The C&AG's report gives little systematic consideration to top management behaviour taken in the round, and the question of whether the various problems identified within Fás were to do with the culture at the top rather than more widely addresses across the organisation. As a result it is not clear that the recommendations in the report would be sufficient to prevent such problems arising again in future."