Union chiefs signed account involved in expenses row

Two senior trade union officials were the signatories to a bank account at the centre of a State training scheme expenses controversy, it emerged today.

Health chiefs have asked Siptu to repay €348,321 channelled into the fund which paid for trips to the US, Australia, Hong Kong, Brussels and the UK.

The account was set up to administer the €60m skill training scheme for lower-paid workers in the health service.

But a Department of Health boss said some of trips had little or nothing to do with upskilling those staff.

Geraldine Smith, an auditor for the Health Service Executive (HSE), said €2.4m of public funding was deposited into the so-called Siptu national health and local authority levy fund.

The account at the Bank of Ireland on O’Connell Street, Dublin, was in the name of two top Siptu officials, she said.

Matt Merrigan is the union’s national industrial secretary and Jack Kelly is the president of the Dublin health services branch, and a member of the union’s national executive council.

The fund was used to bankroll 31 foreign trips for senior public servants, from the HSE, Department of Health and Department of Finance, between 2004 and 2009.

They were referred to as study or social partnership trips.

Siptu has said the account was not authorised by the union and was seized as part of its own investigation into the controversy.

A spokesman for the union said no-one has been suspended pending the outcome of the inquiry, which is expected to be completed within the next two weeks.

“Everybody related to this has been spoken to or will be spoken to as part of the investigation,” he added.

Siptu has also lodged €348,321 with a commissioner for oaths as a “good faith” statement they will pay back any unverified expenses.

At an Oireachtas committee hearing, HSE chief executive Cathal Magee described the fund as “a very unorthodox” arrangement lacking accountability or governance.

Expenses had not been properly vouched or supported with back-up information in what was a serious breach of regulations, he said.

Ms Smith, who carried out an internal audit which revealed the account, said she had very little information on the trips as there were no records kept for travel or hotel costs.

Siptu has said it was unaware of any payments from the Skill scheme and was not aware of any grants from the HSE.

Also before the committee, Michael Scanlan, secretary general of the Department of Health, said some of the trips had little or nothing to do with upskilling of frontline staff.

Mr Scanlan said he had some reports on the visits, some of which were done at the time and others which have been done since from notes.

But he said he could not find anything on department files about the background or purpose of the fund.

The internal audit showed annual one-off grants of €190,000, authorised by the Department of Health, were paid into the account between 2002 and 2004.

This was then upped to €250,000 a year in December 2004 and put on a permanent basis.

Asked if she was satisfied no other such funds were in existence, Ms Smith replied: “I’m hoping.”