Disappearance of €33,000 from two heritage sites investigated

GARDAÍ are investigating the disappearance of about €33,000 from two heritage sites, the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reveals.

The cash would have been received from visitors and tour operators for admission fees and the sale of heritage cards and publications. Both heritage sites at the centre of the Garda probe have not been named in the report.

The missing money at one site amounts to €21,831 and while the sum missing from the other site has not yet been determined, it is reckoned to be more than €11,000.

The Office of Public Works (OPW) manages 747 heritage sites and 19 historic properties, of which 89 are open to the public on a seasonal or annual basis. The public are charged admission at 50 of the 89 sites.

In 2006, more than 2.2 million people visited OPW staffed heritage sites and the income generated from admission fees and sales during the year totalled €6.5 billion.

Such income amounted to €5.6bn in 2005 and €5.5bn in 2004.

It was found that at least €11,000 had gone missing from one site when the OPW’s internal unit was called in to check returns against lodgments made for 2004, 2005 and up to June 2006. The irregularity occurred in August 2004.

An investigation was ordered after another heritage site was found to have made an unusually large cash lodgement in October 2006.

All sites are required to make weekly returns and lodgments to stop the accumulation of large sums of money and limit the risks to security, error and misappropriation.

The lodgment — an accumulation of receipts from mid-July 2006 to mid-September 2006 — was found to be in order.

However, a detailed examination of returns for the site going back as far as 2004 found that receipts amounting to €21,831 due to be lodged between July and December 2005 were missing.

The CAG report points out that a common theme emerging from both cases was failure to lodge money on a weekly basis as required and the failure of the OPW’s visitor service section to detect it in a timely manner.

The OPW has since taken steps to increase staffing levels in their visitor section so the necessary levels of scrutiny and control can be consistently and properly applied.