Additional €900k paid into controversial SIPTU fund

THE first external report on the controversial SIPTU training fund has revealed a further €900,000 was paid into the union-named account which is currently at the centre of a Garda investigation.

A HSE audit of the Government-funded Skill Programme found that of the €67m spent between 2002 and 2009, €2.3m was paid to the SIPTU National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund.

In June, the union said it had not been aware of the payments, as they had not been entered into its official accounts. But it confirmed one of its officials, currently on sick-leave, was a signatory to the account.

It also emerged at that point that a portion of the money was used to fund 31 foreign “study” trips.

A Garda investigation was launched after the HSE lodged a complaint that a significant amount of the €2.3m was unvouched for.

National trustees of the union have now obtained control of the account and SIPTU hopes a report it will release in the next few weeks will address concerns raised by the Comptroller Auditor General and others.

Yesterday, it emerged in the Comptroller and Auditor General’s annual report that an additional €876,000 was paid into the account under the Action Plan for People Management in the period from 2004 to 2008.

The HSE confirmed that money was in addition to the €2.3m referred to in its audit and said it had commenced a separate internal audit in relation to funds paid under the Action Plan for People Management to the SIPTU account.

The C&AG said that since the HSE took over payments and reimbursements to the SIPTU named account in 2005, “the HSE has not been able to confirm the amounts in question were fully applied for the purpose granted since the related invoices were general in nature and the amounts claimed were not vouched in detail”.

He also said he had been told by the Department of Health that all but a handful of the 31 foreign trips were not cleared by the steering group overseeing the Skill Programme.