The Dail's Public Accounts Committee heard today that bosses at agri-research body Teagasc failed to notice that a worker had been filing weekly bogus travel expenses worth €77,636, for 15 years.
The employee concerned was demoted and has since paid back the falsely claimed amount as well as an extra €52,420 in interest and penalties.
The State agency's annual accounts for 2003 also highlighted a conflict of interest with one centre paying out almost €350,000 over nine years to a contract company which was half-owned by a Teagasc employee.
Comptroller & Auditor General Mr John Purcell told the committee these issues showed "serious lapses in the corporate governance structure in the organisation." He said that the discovery of the false expense claims was not followed up satisfactorily and it cast doubt over the efficacy of the financial control environment at the unnamed Teagasc centre.
Teagasc director Mr Jim Flanagan said the issues before the committee were isolated incidents and were not the norm within the organisation. He said the bogus expenses claims went undiscovered for 15 years because of a "culture of unwarranted trust in the integrity of some staff by certain managers" at the centre in question.
Mr Flanagan accepted that Teagasc may not have been as conscious about good governance in the past but it had since carried out stringent reviews to strengthen internal financial controls.
In the conflict of interest incident, an unamed centre had outsourced a data-input service to a firm which was 50% owned by a Teagasc employee who was responsible for related work at the centre.
Mr Purcell found that there was no competitive tendering for the work, which was valued at €336,000 between 1995 and July 2004.
"Here was an apparent laissez faire approach on the part of local management at the centre to compliance with ethical standards and financial control standards," he said.
PA