Vow of strict controls for new Fás board
The Enterprise Minister said the focus of the new board’s work will be value for money as well as to aid young and vulnerable people on the ground.
“It is clearly my intention to announce a new board in the coming days and they will be given a mandate to ensure that corporate governance is stridently adhered to and there’s good value for money but equally that the core business of Fás is implemented on the ground,” Ms Coughlan said.
“You will see that myfocus and target this year will be very much on young people and the vulnerable.”
The chairman of the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee Bernard Allen this week took the highly unusual step of writing to Ms Coughlan expressing dismay at the way sensitive reports handed to her department on Fás had been leaked to the media.
Some reports centred on the €1 million pension bonus given to former Fás boss Rody Molloy.
Fine Gael has been calling for the jobs agency to be completely restructured after the emergence of 22 audit reports which reportedly showed overwhelming evidence of misconduct within the organisation.
The findings in the reports could lead to several Fás staff being fired after spending controls were ignored at the €1bn agency.
The main target of the agency with its new board and funds would be young unemployed people, said Ms Coughlan in Dublin yesterday. Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Hanafin would also be heavily involved with the strengthened focus of the agency, she said.
The Tánaiste said Fás had already made changes to how it advertised and how its credit cards were being used since reports of overspending.
The state agency has been rocked by a string of financial scandals, including the spending of €600,000 on a TV ad that was never shown and a car bought as a competition prize, which went missing.
