Garda college auditor faced legal threat

A Garda manager threatened the internal auditor who uncovered the Garda college financial scandal with legal action if he did not remove key findings from his report into the case.

Michael Culhane, the Garda college’s head of finance, made the allegation in a written letter to auditor Niall Kelly in October 2016, claiming the internal audit had effectively defamed him.

The correspondence is part of a trawl of fresh documents due to be discussed by the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) when it meets privately today to consider its own draft report into the controversy. The correspondence was written as part of the initial response to the internal audit findings.