Fine dining on taxpayers’ money
AN INTERNAL audit ordered by health and safety chiefs on the amount they spent on food, drinks and tips during the Celtic Tiger and beyond found “no evidence” to suggest the Heath and Safety Authority (HSA) ever sought value for money.
An examination of credit card statements between 2005 and 2011 shows how HSA staff dined at the best of restaurants. In the six-and-a-half year period from Jan 2005 to Jun 2011, €100,217 was spent on “meeting related expenditure” including team building and Christmas lunches:
* In Nov 2007, €1,268 was spent at in Dublin on an office meeting and lunch.
* A month later, a staff lunch at Abacus restaurant, also in Dublin, for corporate services staff cost €2,210.
* In Feb 2008, when the global credit crunch was well under way and the Department of Finance was cracking the austerity whip, HSA officials spent €292 at the Michelin-starred Chapter One eatery. Later that day, they blew €579 at celebrity chef Gary Rhodes’s feted Rhodes D7 restaurant when they met with their Polish counterparts.
* In June that year, the HSA board and its executives once more chose Chapter One. Following a meeting, they spent €700 of taxpayers’ money on food and drink, The auditors, Crowley DFK said in the majority of cases, spending of taxpayers’ money “was not excessive” and only displayed concern at (i) the €2,673 bill following a meeting with a Chilean delegation at the Clarence Hotel in Jul 2007 and (ii) the €925 spent during a meeting with foreign health authorities at Chapter One in Jul 2008.
Crowley DFK auditors said “in most cases there was a reasonable business reason for incurring the cost of the lunch or dinner. However we found no evidence to support that the venues were chosen as they represented value for money”.
The auditors noted how HSA expenditure on food and meetings has “fallen dramatically” .
“In 2006, HSA staff or board members attended 172 lunches or dinners whereas in 2009 and 2010, only 26 such cases occurred.”
The internal investigation also showed how one employee was allowed to regularly stay in five and four star hotels if he was working late and due to attend a meeting or catch an early morning flight.
These stay-overs were sanctioned even though he was living less than 15 miles from his place of employment — which under Department of Finance guidelines is the minimum distance required to avail of overnight subsistence.
In 2005, he stayed in Dublin hotels on nine occasions. Six of these stays were at five star hotels, two in a four star hotels and one in a three star hotel. In 2006, he stayed in Dublin hotels 26 times. On two of these occasions, he stayed at a five star hotel and 24 times, he stayed at four star hotels. Only in six of these 2006 stay-overs did he comply with Department of Finance guidelines.
The auditors’ report was given to the Public Accounts Committee in May of this year.
* Read more:
Audit defends €625k HSA bill for fine dining and hotels
