Watchdog probes garda phone deal

THE Comptroller and Auditor General is investigating a controversial deal which resulted in gardaí making millions of euro worth of mobile phone calls at the expense of the Office of Public Works.

Last week’s Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) heard that gardaí ran up a substantial phone bill of more than €750,000 last year, leaving the OPW to pick up the tab on behalf of the taxpayer.

According to the OPW, up to 1,000 gardaí clocked up mobile bills amounting to hundreds of thousands of euro annually believing the calls were free.