‘Consistent, widespread breaches’ by gardaí
It cited a lack of garda oversight of the system, which it said was “fraught” with wasted human resources, a lack of internal controls, antiquated processes and loss of legitimate revenue to the State.
The report cites senior garda officers as saying that the controversy would not have happened if gardaí adhered to official policy.
And in a partial vindication to the country’s two whistleblowers, it added: “The inspectorate was told by senior gardaí that but for the public scrutiny, the extent of the deficiencies within the fixed charge processing system [FCPS] would not have been detected.”
Publishing the report, Robert K Olson, chief inspector, welcomed the “swift” reaction by the Government to the report and their acceptance of its 37 recommendations.
He said there was “certainly a lot of criticisms” of the FCPS system in their report, which he said they expanded beyond simply the cancellation of fines to the operation of the entire system by various state agencies.
“There were significant amounts of what, we believe, are wasted human resources, antiquated processes, [which are] paper laden and pretty onerous,” Mr Olson said.
He said there was a communication problem between the state agencies, including the gardaí and the courts, saying they “don’t talk that well”.
In relation to the Garda’s handling of the system, he said: “There’s generally no clear policy guidelines, no internal controls, widespread breaches of existing policies, poor management and supervision of the system, duplication of efforts, onerous paper-driven redundant use of personnel resources, better used elsewhere and loss of legitimate revenue to the State.”
The report said no training was provided to district officers operating the system, nor any audit of districts. It said a rigorous audit was required to “restore public confidence”, but did note “the heavy workload on district officers”, for whom this issue was low on their policing priorities.
When inspectors examined districts they found there was no supporting documentary evidence for the cancellation of fine notices in half of the cases. It found a wide range in cancellations rates, with one district refusing all petitions to cancel, while another granted all requests.
Mr Olson said the information about the FCPS supplied by whistleblower Sergeant Maurice McCabe was “credible”. But he stressed that they did not look at the specific allegations made by the whistleblower which were investigated, and roundly rejected, by the internal O’Mahoney garda investigation.
He did not describe what they found as evidence of corruption, saying they found breaches of policy and lack of management.
