A second local authority has been discovered to have sent false invoices to the National Roads Authority claiming payment for roadworks not yet completed, it has emerged.
North Tipperary County Council certified last year that £157,500 worth of works had been carried out on Thurles streets in 1997, the Dail Committee of Public Accounts was told yesterday. It submitted invoices to this effect to the NRA and was paid the money.
However, a review by the NRA discovered that in fact just £40,000 expense had actually been incurred in 1997.
By the time the authority discovered the irregularity a further £27,000 worth of work had been completed, so the authority sought and received a refund of £90,000 from the council.
The revelation follows a similar one in July when it emerged that £2.5 million was paid by the NRA to Cork County Council for road works that had not been completed.
The council had submitted false documentation to the authority on five occasions in 1993 and 1994 in order to get the money.
The committee was told that false invoices were solicited from the contractor carrying out the work, and that "two or three" council engineers would have known of the falsification.
The chairman of the committee, Mr Jim Mitchell, said yesterday the issue was "of the utmost gravity" and that the committee would meet next week to consider whether it should be referred to the Garda Fraud Squad or the Director of Public Prosecutions for their consideration.
Mr Noel Dillon, who was Cork county manager at the time, said yesterday that the false claims "arose from over-zealousness to ensure that allocated funds were not lost to the council and to the Cork scene".
There was always a fear, he said, that funds allocated in one year but not spent might not be available the following year.
Pressed repeatedly by deputies as to why the false Cork claims had not been spotted by the NRA, the chief executive, Mr Michael Tobin, said there were not enough resources to check every claim.
It was unrealistic to expect the authority to be able to do so.
"We deal with 35 local authorities, and each could have 30 projects for which they are making returns each month. We did not recognise that two out of perhaps 1,000 schemes involved claims that were not in order. We simply do not have the resources to check each project."
He said the certification for the work had been completed at a very senior level in Cork County Council, although he conceded that the procedures used needed to be strengthened.
The Secretary General of the Department of the Environment, Mr Jimmy Farrelly, said deputies seemed to be suggesting "that every item of work carried out by a local authority should be inspected". This would involve an army of officials, he said.
However, Mr Mitchell said he was "very tired of senior public officials coming in here and excusing inaction and ineptitude on the basis of lack of resources".
It seemed to be the public service answer to everything and "it doesn't wear well with me".
Mr Dillon said in response to questions from Mr Mitchell and the Fianna Fail deputy, Mr Sean Ardagh, that no disciplinary action had been taken against anyone in relation to the deception.
His job, he said, had been to motivate and lead his staff, and "to encourage them to take ownership and pride" in the work of the council.
The staff involved in this deception had believed "that this was helping the council and helping Cork", he said, and on this basis he had not taken any disciplinary action.
Mr Mitchell said the matter was "of the utmost gravity . . . It involved procuring from prospective contractors false invoices, collusion between local authorities and contractors. It raises enormous implications for corruption."
He said the committee would meet next week to decide whether the matter should be referred to the Garda Fraud Squad or the Director of Public Prosecutions.