C&AG delays release of SIPTU fund report

THE Comptroller and Auditor General will complete his report on the controversial €2.35 million SIPTU training fund within two weeks.

It is more than two months since both the Garda and the C&AG lodged independent investigations into the fund, part of an overall €60m SKILL programme, which was set up eight years ago to “support SIPTU human resources personnel development schemes and the development of union management partnerships of best practice”.

The fund was used to pay for 31 foreign trips undertaken by civil servants, health service staff and trade union representatives, including visits to the US, Australia, Hong Kong and Britain.

SIPTU repeatedly said its executive had no knowledge of the fund, though it confirmed one of its officials was a signatory to the account.

Matters came to a head at the end of June when the HSE lodged a formal complaint with the Gardaí and began its own internal investigation.

The garda probe was understood to focus on the fact that up to 50% of the money paid to the SIPTU national health and local authority levy fund remained unvouched.

SIPTU and the Department of Health have also begun internal probes, with the former looking at the role its members played in the administration of the fund and the latter looking at how many staff availed of the trips.

The C&AG’s office has confirmed its report, which had been expected next week, will not be ready until September 15.

At that point it will be handed over to the Government which must, within three months, bring it before the Oireachtas.

It is likely the report will form the basis of a hearing by the Oireachtas’s Public Accounts Committee.

The reports of the Department of Health, the Department of Finance and SIPTU are expected to be completed soon after the C&AG’s.

Yesterday the HSE confirmed the matter was still with gardaí and its report will not be released until the garda probe is completed “in order not to compromise the garda investigation”.

Health Minister Mary Harney has warned there will be “tough” measures taken against any public officials found to have misappropriated State money connected with the HSE training fund. Ms Harney said she would be “very concerned” if any public money were misused or if there was inappropriate travel, and said her department had prepared documentation for the consideration of the Comptroller Auditor General.