THE PUBLIC Accounts Committee is to investigate the circumstances surrounding a €2.3 million fund which was used to pay for foreign travel for civil servants and union officials.
Fine Gael TD Bernard Allen, who chairs the Oireachtas committee, said he was concerned at reports at how public money was spent without appropriate oversight.
An internal audit by the Health Service Executive of the skills staff training programme found no financial records for travel or hotel costs were kept for overseas health service staff training trips.
The trips, involving civil servants, HSE officials, trade unionists and others, were funded in a non-transparent manner, the report found. The trips were to the US, Australia, Hong Kong and the UK.
The money ended up in an account bearing the name of Siptu, although the union says it never received the funds. A Siptu official is the subject of an internal investigation into the matter.
Mr Allen said: “From what has emerged over the past week, it raises very serious issues over governance and control of State funds relating to the Department of Health and Finance and the Health Service Executive – who apparently allowed the money to pass through their accounts without adequate controls.”
He said the Comptroller and Auditor General will address aspects of how the fund was spent in his annual report. Once this is completed, he said the committee will address outstanding issues.
The committee can compel officials in State departments and organisations to appear before it, but this authority does not extend to trade unions. The €2.3 million fund is linked to a wider €60 million skills training programme.
This was used to train non-clinical health staff in areas like catering and portering. The internal audit report, carried out into the skills training programme, has been referred to the Garda by the HSE board.
It is understood the internal audit also maintained that there were breaches of public service and HSE recruitment policy. It maintained that relatives of staff associated with the programme were directed to a recruitment agency, which then placed two people on temporary contracts with the skills office.
Sources said the internal report also contended that a relative of one person associated with the programme was subsequently given a full-time job in the HSE without an internal or external competition.
A blame game appears to be taking place between the Department of Health, the HSE and Siptu over who was responsible for overseeing how the fund was spent.
Last week, HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm said the €2.3 million “moved between the Government and a trade union and had been channelled through the HSE”, but could “give no good answer” about what the money was used for. Siptu sources say the HSE had responsibility to oversee where its funds were being spent. The department has insisted it had no role in overseeing the funds.
Sources close to the department said the bulk of €60 million went on upskilling and training courses.
The €2.3 million strand was aimed at “supporting Siptu human resources personnel development schemes and the development of union-management partnerships of best practice”.