Six hours in the chair failed to impress
Yet again, the shambolic system of financial controls within Fás over many years came under the spotlight as further details of spending extravagance by senior executives emerged.
While much of recent media focus has concentrated on the colourful depiction of Mary Harney’s wash and blow dry at a Florida hair and nail salon in July 2004, contributing to a $410 bill picked up by Fás, and ultimately by taxpayers, the public accounts committee yesterday correctly turned their attention to the more serious breaches of financial controls within the organisation.
For the third time in as many months, senior Fás bosses faced a grilling by TDs over their failure to monitor the activities of the head of the corporate affairs division, Greg Craig.
After the resignation of former director general, Rody Molloy last Tuesday following his unwisely defence during a radio interview with Pat Kenny of €643,000 spent on travel and expenses by Fás executives and their spouses over a number of years, it was left to assistant director general, Christy Cooney to face the music.
And what emerged did not make for happy listening as Mr Cooney disclosed that Mr Craig was formally suspended on full pay just two days ago — a shocking revelation given that allegations against Mr Craig were first raised back in 2004.
More controversially, Mr Cooney went on to explain that he was suspended on the basis of an internal audit investigation which had only started earlier this year.
However, he failed to offer an explanation as to what disciplinary action Mr Craig had faced in 2007 following an earlier inquiry which lasted over three years, even though he admitted under repeated questioning that the senior executive had not been suspended on that occasion.
Although Mr Cooney said he could not divulge the nature of the disciplinary action against Mr Craig to the public accounts committee (PAC) for legal reasons, the excuse also acted as a convenient fig leaf to hide the agency’s embarrassment over its failure to act more decisively before last Wednesday.
One is still left wondering how serious the matters are which occurred in 2006 and 2007 (the period being examined by the ongoing audit inquiry) to justify Mr Craig’s recent suspension, given that the earlier investigation into his activities in 2003 and 2004 merely resulted in some form of disciplinary action that allowed him to retain his position as head of a division in control of a budget of €50 million during that time.
Combined with the profligacy of their expenses budget, Fás bosses were left with little choice but to concede that there had indeed been poor monitoring of expenditure within the organisation.
Mr Cooney’s discomfort was to intensify over the course of the extended hearing as he was forced to admit under detailed questioning that he had in fact short-listed Mr Craig for promotion earlier this year — notwithstanding the fact that his colleague had been subject to some undisclosed disciplinary action within the previous 12 months.
When asked by Labour TD, Roisín Shortall to explain why he considered Mr Craig for promotion in such circumstances, he again invoked the cloak of legal advice for his inability to provide an answer.
The Youghal man, who is due to take over from Nicky Brennan as president of the GAA next year, may well have felt GAA hurling issues in his native Cork are less stressful in comparison to the ongoing forensic examination of Fás activities by TDs.
His unease was complete when he felt compelled — unprompted — to point out to the PAC that he had no role in the decision to move Fás’s annual Opportunities job fair from the RDS to Croke Park in case anyone thought he might have some influence at GAA headquarters.
There was also a certain level of frustration among the members of the PAC who have still to be given full explanations why such lax controls were allowed to develop within Fás over a lengthy period and who was responsible for such oversight.
PAC chairman Bernard Allen expressed annoyance at the failure of Mr Molloy to show up for yesterday’s meeting following his resignation on Tuesday, although it is clear that both he and the recently retired assistant director general, Gerry Pyke, who was Mr Craig’s line manager, will be invited to attend future hearings.
In a stinging rebuke of Mr Molloy, Mr Allen said the loyalty of highly paid public servants to the public good should not disappear merely because they had left their job.
The Fine Gael TD and other members of the PAC have also been incensed by the fact that they have been given “censored” versions of documents which Fás appears to have had no difficulty in releasing to media outlets under the Freedom of Information Act.
It has certainly ensured that the committee will remain dogged in their pursuit of what happened in Fás to allow such a waste of taxpayers’ money over an extended period.
As one TD pointedly asked yesterday, would Fás officials have uncovered any of the problems themselves if they had not been made aware of the contents of an anonymous letter sent to Mary Harney in July 2004 about the corporate affairs division?
The answer to that critical question remains unclear.
