Call for overhaul of state grant system

THE Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley has urged the Government to overhaul the way it issues grants to external bodies in the wake of the SIPTU training fund controversy.

As reported yesterday, the C&AG’s latest report on public spending showed that more than €3 million, and not €2.3m as initially thought, was paid into an account in SIPTU’s name which the union has said it did not control.

The Gardaí, as well as the Health Service Executive, the Department of Finance and the Department of Health, are investigating how the €2.3m paid to the SIPTU National Health and Local Authority Levy as part of the €60m SKILL training programme was spent.