Teagasc management criticised over expenses scam

THE Comptroller and Auditor General, John Purcell, has criticised management at Teagasc after it emerged an employee had claimed bogus travel expenses worth almost €80,000.

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday that the State’s food and agriculture development authority had received information on three occasions between 2001 and 2003 that staff members had been making false claims for travel expenses.

In 2003, an internal audit investigation revealed one employee at an unnamed Teagasc research centre had been submitting spurious travel claims since 1988.