Greyhound board auditors take sick leave after race-fixing report

The two principal internal investigators at the Irish Greyhound Board have taken extended work-related sick leave as the company delays the publication of their recent report into a race-fixing scam.

The Irish Greyhound Board’s head of compliance and its internal auditor had worked together to investigate the company’s response to three recent scandals.

Their latest report into a meticulous rigging scam in Dundalk was adopted by the board in February, before it was published by the Irish Examiner. However, that report has not been released and the company has said it is being re-examined by legal advisors.

The original report found that a rigged race at Dundalk was not an isolated event and was missed in the inquiry of the IGB’s regulation team.

The regulation team failed to notice that a ringer dog was run against weaker opposition, and that this was part of an ongoing strategy to manipulate runners’ records.

The report criticised the IGB and said two previous internal inquiries failed to establish the facts as key evidence was not sought.

In a recent letter to the Sporting Press, IGB chief executive Adrian Neilan defended the board’s handling of the original Dundalk investigation, which was held in June 2009, “Specifically, Dundalk represented an isolated systematic breakdown of race stewarding in 2008,” Mr Neilan wrote.

“Without a steward’s enquiry being called by racing officials on the night in question, it meant the follow-up investigation against the people who planned this event was significantly curtailed.”

The IGB has now let it be known that the investigators’ report, details of which were published in the Irish Examiner, will not be made public in the near future.

This is because of the ongoing legal review and the fact its two investigators are on long-term sick leave.

In a statement, the IGB said it could not comment on “confidential employee matters”. “In relation to the report on the Dundalk enquiry, this is currently undergoing legal review prior to publication,” it said.

Prior to the Dundalk inquiry, the same two men reported on the €36,000 burglary at the company’s headquarters in Limerick.

This found pressure on staff following a redundancy programme had contributed to a situation where proper procedures were not followed. This report was completed in March 2012 but has not been published.

The head of compliance and the internal auditor also investigated serious issues at the Harold’s Cross track. This happened in mid-2011, when the board heard concerns about regulation problems at the track.

Previously, the IGB has been blighted by a series of human resources claims that cost it €2m, and the Public Accounts Committee has probed the high level of settlements it has been forced to agree with staff.

When former IGB chairman Dick O’Sullivan, resigned, he told the board one of his achievements was that there was no significant legal claims in his tenure.