PUBLIC ACCOUNTS COMMITTEE HEARING:THE DEPARTMENT of Health can find no records setting out precisely why it sanctioned an annual grant of about €250,000 to Siptu which was paid into a bank account operated by a leading official of the union and a senior member.
The secretary general of the Department of Health, Michael Scanlan, told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee yesterday that the official files did not explain the purpose for which the payments were to be used.
However, he said that the payment was sanctioned in 2001 against a backdrop of a period when there had been considerable industrial unrest in the health service. He said that at that time there had been agreements to provide up-skilling for a number of groups in the health service.
The money was channelled by the Department of Health through the Skill training programme which aimed to provide up-skilling for lower-paid staff such as porters, home helps and cleaning personnel. The scheme was operated by the Health Service Executive.
The committee hearing centred on two highly critical reports into the running of the Skill programme and the money paid to the Siptu-linked account.
These reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General set out examples of waste of public money and serious breaches of corporate governance, financial oversight and procurement.
The reports also revealed 31 foreign trips which were linked to the Skill programme.
Mr Scanlan said that while the foreign visits undertaken were relevant and legitimate, “some of the trips seemed to have little to do with up-skilling of front-line staff”.
The HSE has contended that money from the grant – which amounted to more than €2 million over several years – was used in part to pay for a number of foreign trips undertaken by civil servants, health service staff and trade union officials.
The trade union Siptu has said that it knew nothing about the payments made into the bank account. It has said that it was not one of its authorised accounts.
HSE auditor Geraldine Smith said the signatories of the Siptu National Health and Local Authority Levy fund were Siptu official Matt Merrigan and Jack Kelly, who is a senior union member.
HSE head of human resources Seán McGrath confirmed that almost €900,000 had been paid from a partnership forum for the health service into the Siptu National Health and Local Authority Levy fund
The committee also heard that about €250,000 out of this money had been given to three other trade unions.
Mr McGrath said that the HSE wanted to close down the independent banking facility of the partnership forum in the health service and incorporate these arrangements into those of the health authority.
Department of Finance principal officer Oonagh Buckley revealed that funding was also paid into the Siptu National Health and Local Authority Fund account from the local government sector.
She said that the Department of Finance understood that had been distributed through a partnership body known as LANPAG, although it did not know the amounts involved.
The committee heard that one senior official of Dublin City Council, identified as Frank Kelly, had taken part in one of the trips.
Fine Gael TD Jim O’Keeffe described the payments into the bank account as “a slush fund” by which public money was used for improper purposes.