Department allowed Fás to break bonus rules

THE Department of Finance allowed Fás to break bonus payment limits for senior managers despite suspicions the awards were divvied out inappropriately.

The scheme saw six assistant director generals, and another who recently retired, share €113,184 based on their work in 2007.

This was equal to 11.46% of their combined salaries in 2008, which broke a 10% public service standard for bonus arrangements.

In July last year, the secretary general of the finance department’s public service management division, Ciarán Connolly, raised no objection to the overall figure.

However, he chastised the Department of Enterprise for the way Fás apparently calculated the payments.

He told Sean Gorman, secretary general at the Department of Enterprise, the request to break limits to include the retired manager suggested decisions were not linked to achievements.

Last month, Mr Gorman wrote to the public accounts committee outlining the reasons for allowing FÁS to breach bonus limits on this occasion. He said the payments, which related to 2007, included one person who had retired and initially was not included in the scheme.

Fás’s then director general, Rody Molloy, awarded him a €16,169 bonus, which meant the overall pot broke the 10% of combined salaries threshold.

Mr Gorman said the Department of Finance agreed to this.