Millions lost as Fás fails to adopt computer system

MILLIONS of euro in EU grants to help unemployed people get back to work are being lost because Fás has failed to update its book- keeping from paper to a modern computer system.

Irish authorities have informed the European Commission they are unable to meet demands they set out when effectively withdrawing the share of the European Social Fund (ESF) last year.

Ireland’s €375 million share was stopped after an EU audit found problems with the monitoring of the money for courses offered by Fás.

The Government was then asked to explain to the commission how it was going to deal with these concerns.

The Department of Education, now overseeing Fás, wrote to the commission on September 2 explaining the April deadline to put a computerised system in place had been missed.

It’s understood difficulties with the restructuring of the agency led to difficulties in putting a computer system in place at the agency which had a budget of €1 billion a year during the boom.

“They have told us that they would be putting computerised book-keeping in place because there were difficulties with the audit trawl identified. That book- keeping system was planned for April but it has been delayed,” said a spokesperson for the Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion Commissioner, Lazslo Andor.

Ireland will be able to claim the fund again when these issues are sorted out, but the authorities have not yet given a timeline or indication of when they can meet the EU demands. “There are rules that have to be kept,” the spokesperson said. “If they get their act together, this can be sorted out.”

She could not give a figure on how much in grant aid Ireland is losing out on but it is believed to be at least €57 million. The fund is provided to “help Europeans get jobs, acquire new skills and find better jobs”, according to the commission, which stressed the 450,000 people out of work should not lose out because of the problems identified.

The Irish Examiner revealed last week that concerns were raised as far back as 2006 about a “paper trail” monitoring system of training programmes which benefited from the EU fund.

But the spokesperson said yesterday that the EU was first alerted to the problems when it carried out an audit in October 2009.

The commission is now reviewing all ESF funds allocated to Fás in the past 10 years. Between 2000 and 2006, the organisation was allocated €407m through this fund while €211m has already been drawn down from the €375m fund for 2007-2013.

The spokesperson could not confirm any audits before 2009 but said different EU rules may have applied when this money was granted. “The systems for managing these things change for each financial period.”