2-for-1 air tickets were ‘common practice’
However, Fás assistant director-general Christy Cooney admitted yesterday that there was long-standing practice within the organisation that staff could get two tickets for the value of one business class fare.
It followed the controversy which erupted over the recent revelation that Fás executives spent €643,000 on travel and other expenses over a four-year period, including former Fás director-general Rody Molloy, who exchanged his first-class ticket to enable his wife accompany him on a trip to the US.
Mr Cooney told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday that he had recently issued a new directive that nobody was to travel first-class in future.
He acknowledged that official instructions issued by the Department of Finance was that economy class should be used whenever possible.
He also explained that Fás had paid for PR advisor Paddy Duffy, a close friend of former taoiseach Bertie Ahern, to travel to the US because he had helped Fás in “opening doors” for a project with the US space agency, NASA.
Mr Cooney also said he had no information about the details of a $410 (€315) bill run up at a hair and nail salon in Florida in July 2004 which was visited by former Tánaiste Mary Harney for a wash and blow dry. He said Fás had no official policy on grooming.
During a six-hour hearing, Mr Cooney admitted that proper procedures on controlling expenditure were not followed within Fás over many years.
The PAC is investigating breaches of financial controls within Fás which resulted in the suspension of the agency’s former head of corporate affairs, Greg Craig, earlier this week.
Mr Cooney, who took over responsibility for corporate affairs last March, said any procurement was now done “by the book” with all expenditure monitored closely.
He said the maximum credit card spending limits for senior executives was now €5,000. The committee heard that Mr Craig’s Fás credit card limit was €76,000 at one stage, while the credit card used by Mr Molloy ran up a total bill of €118,000 in 2007.
Fás board member and head of its audit committee, Niall Saul said there had been a failure of control and oversight of expenditure of Mr Craig’s section that had fallen well below expected standards.
“There was a culture within corporate affairs that was, at best, careless,” he remarked. Mr Saul said there was a number of senior executives who failed to question spending by Mr Craig.
The committee heard that Fás is now carrying out a full root and branch investigation of expenditure controls within the organisation which has an annual budget of over €1 billion.
Mr Saul admitted that he had disagreed with Mr Molloy about the format of an audit report into Mr Craig’s division which was finally completed in 2007.
He stressed that Mr Molloy, who wanted the report split into two parts, had never sought any dilution of the findings of the report.
However, Mr Saul said he was concerned that Mr Molloy had shown Mr Craig a copy of the report prior to a separate disciplinary investigation.
Fine Gael TD Pádraic McCormack said Mr Craig had benefited from his recent suspension as he remained on full pay.
Mr Cooney noted that Mr Craig had altered his explanations on various expenditure issues as the audits had progressed.
Mr Cooney, who assumes the presidency of the GAA next year, said he had no role in the decision to move the annual Fás Opportunities job fair in Dublin from the RDS to Croke Park.
He also said a similar event in Cork was moved to the Nemo Rangers grounds because City Hall was unavailable. It is understood that the cost of staging the job fair increased significantly as a result of the change of venues in both cities.
Opening the meeting yesterday, PAC chairman Bernard Allen stressed that the committee was not trying to damage Fás by its investigation but merely ensuring that the organisation was getting value for taxpayers’ money.
He expressed the annoyance of TDs at the failure of Mr Molloy to attend yesterday’s hearing as it was handicapping the PAC’s ability to conduct its inquiry.
The Comptroller & Auditor General, John Buckley, complained that he was unaware of the problems within Fás for many years because he had not been given specific details about the nature of the internal audit inquiries.
Meanwhile, Fás last night confirmed that it had cancelled airline tickets worth €32,000 which were booked for Mary Harney and officials after she changed her plans and travelled to the US by the Government jet in July 2004.
Mr Cooney had mistakenly informed the PAC that Fás officials had failed to cancel the tickets leaving taxpayers at a major loss.
FÁS officials are due back before the PAC again next Thursday.
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