Positive Action director ran up €34k taxi bill

A HSE audit of the Hepatitis C support group Positive Action, which was wound up earlier this year, has identified "inappropriate" and extravagant expenditure using taxpayers’ money on the likes of relaxation weekends, gifts and even the cost of dog kennels.

The internal audit also confirms serious breaches of corporate governance at Positive Action which was set up in 1994 to support women who contracted hepatitis C after receiving contaminated anti-D human immunoglobulin from the Blood Transfusion Service Board.

According to RTÉ, which obtained a copy of the audit report, “the organisation had non-existent controls over the expenditure of public funds, there was significant extravagance, irregularities and resistance by directors to being accountable”.

It detailed how, amongst other things:

-One director ran up a taxi bill of almost €34,000;

-More than €100,000 was spent on complimentary therapies, including “angel healing” and “angel card readings” and ear candling;

-€86,781 was spent on dining and purchases of groceries;

-$795 was spent on alcohol at a conference about liver disease;

-A courier to transport dry cleaning cost €202 and dog kennels cost €185.

Positive Action had been allocated €2.3m of taxpayers’ money between 2009 and 2013.

Concerns about the spending were voiced last January when the HSE appointed an administrator to review the group and two months later it wrote to Positive Action outlining a series of concerns including poor corporate governance resulting in lack of control and effective oversight by board of directors; inappropriate and extravagant expenditure of public funds; a disregard for the disbursement of public funds.

In the internal audit report obtained by RTÉ and detailed yesterday, there was a mixed reaction from the organisation’s directors.

One, Director C, who was writing on behalf of four other directors, said they were disappointed at the tone of the report and said it was overly extended. However, another director, G, said she was angry at the way the funds had been used while another said there was not much she could dispute and she was angry at the way the money had been used. Positive Action had 730 members before it was disbanded. More than 1,000 women were infected by the contaminated Anti-D human immunogloblin.