Gardaí to probe fund’s missing millions

THE Garda investigation into the controversial €2.35 million SIPTU training fund will focus on up to €1m of the fund which remains unaccounted for.

As well as lodging a formal complaint with gardaí, HSE chief executive Brendan Drumm has begun an internal investigation into the compliance and governance arrangements his organisation put in place to administer the €60m SKILL programme, of which the €2.35m was just a part.

The Department of Health has confirmed it is carrying out a review of its involvement in the scheme and it will examine which of its officials went overseas as part of the programme.

The HSE complaint to gardaí relates to the fact that up to 50% of the money paid to the “SIPTU national health and local authority levy fund” remains unvouched.

The union has repeatedly said it did not receive the €2.35m fund and has external auditors to vouch for that. However, SIPTU has confirmed one of its officials was subject to internal enquiries on foot of information the union received from the HSE. Yesterday, it confirmed its member was a signatory to the account, was currently on sick leave and it had previously asked that person to cooperate fully with the HSE audit unit.

“As recently as June 1, it was confirmed to SIPTU by the staff member concerned that the engagement with the HSE was continuing,” the union said.

The union has also accused the HSE of refusing to give it documentation on the issue. And last night, it said it still had not received that documentation, even though it had sent a request as well as a series of questions to both HSE chairman Liam Downey and to Professor Brendan Drumm.

Those questions refer to the source of authorisation for the fund, the compliance requirements and why the payments were not made through the established channels within the union.

The HSE denied the level of ignorance of the fund claimed by the union. It has now sent a letter to SIPTU detailing its concerns. With that letter, it said it has resent 69 pages of documentation relating to the fund which it said it had already given the union last October. A HSE spokesman said to further help the union in its investigation, it was sending a further 12 pages of documentation.

SIPTU said as of last night it had not received this correspondence. It said it had authorised two trustees of the union to “take all appropriate action, including legal measures, if necessary, to obtain any information from any source in order to finalise these enquiries”.

The €2.35m fund paid for union members and Government officials to go as far afield as the US and Australia for “study trips”.