Health authority spent over €625,000 with credit cards
The Department of Enterprise, which oversees the authority, yesterday said over €625,000 had been spent with the authority’s credit cards from 2005 to 2011. It has examined the funds used following complaints.
Public accounts committee chairman John McGuinness yesterday said he had concerns about the excessive amounts spent on wining, dining and even flowers between 2007 and 2009.
This included trips abroad, several dinners that cost over €2,000 each and a restaurant tip that amounted to €300.
Concerns had been raised with the department over the spend, he added, including the €4,086 spent on travel, which remains unexplained.
There was also a purchase at a hair health centre in Limerick that amounted to €200, the committee heard.
Mr McGuinness asked if procedures were in place so such spending would not occur again and if individuals had been asked to repay amounts.
Department secretary general John Murphy said his officials had examined many records and thousands of pages of documents dating back to 2005 on the authority’s spending.
The €625,000 credit card spends were only 0.4% of the authority’s budget, he said.
There were a small number of transactions for amounts totalling €25,000 that needed further explanation, he said.
Mr McGuinness said he was “taken aback” by the level of credit card spending and was “baffled” why the department had not conducted its own inquiry.
“It’s a great splash of taxpayers’ money during that period... like what was spent by Fás,” he said.
The number of individuals with company credit cards in the authority had been reduced to two, Mr Murphy said, adding that there had been a tightening of expenses for entertainment and travel.
The department head agreed to provide a report on the authority’s spend to the committee in the coming weeks.
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