Category: Civil Service

Entertaining FÁS and friends

The following is a list of entertainments enjoyed by FÁS staff and others at taxpayer’s expense (Comptroller and Auditor General
Special Report).

Note that these luxuries were being availed of right up to 2008 when the economy was falling apart and there’s no reason to believe that anything has changed.

Expenditure on Events
3.52 Over the period 2002 to 2008, FÁS paid a net €35,000 for tickets to events including match and concert tickets and hospitality associated with some of the events. The details of the tickets purchased were as follows

€43,100 was paid for four ten-year match tickets. Two tickets were purchased in 2005 at a cost of €20,000 and two further tickets in 2007 at a cost of €23,100.

Following the appointment of a Director General on an interim basis in late 2008 a decision was taken to cancel the tickets.

In May 2009, FÁS received the sum of €33,800 as reimbursement for the unexpired terms of the tickets. The net cost of the tickets was €9,300.
€7,000 for tickets for the All Ireland hurling and football finals.

Ten tickets were purchased for each final for the years 2006 to 2008 inclusive while between four and eight tickets were purchased for each final for the years 2002 to 2005.

€4,640 for tickets for rugby internationals between 2006 and 2008.
€1,960 for tickets for soccer internationals in 2007 and 2008.
€3,724 for concert tickets in the period 2005 to 2008.
€8,299 for hospitality at events. This included €2,255 at the Robbie Williams concert in 2006 and amounts incurred at the All Ireland Finals (€2,244 in 2005, €2,300 in 2006 and €1,500 in 2007).

3.53 All but one of the payments were approved by the former Director General. The remaining payment was approved by the ADG who was Secretary to the Board.

There was no evidence on the FÁS files to indicate how the expenditure was relevant to FÁS’s business.

FÁS could not provide this information and wrote to the former Director General seeking information about the payments.

No response was provided before the finalisation of this report.

Once again we see a senior civil servant (perhaps that should be changed to self – servant) giving the two fingers to taxpayers.

In this case it seems former Director General of FÁS, Rody Molloy, is too busy spending his €900,000 to bother answering questions.

Lies, secrecy and arrogance is still the prevailing attitude

The latest report by the Comptroller & Auditor General (C&AG) into FÁS reveals some very questionable activities by its staff.

€200,000 on flights for people not working for the agency. Apparently, this gravy train, funded by the taxpayer, included journalists, politicians, spouses and friends.

There was also questionable expenditure on golfing events, sporting events and concerts, the majority approved by the incompetent, disgraced but well compensated Mr. Molloy.

Money was spent without authority, the FÁS board was effectively lied to and credit cards were thrown around like drunken sailors in a brothel.

But the most shocking and disgusting aspect of this scandal is the arrogance of the civil servants involved including the C&AG himself.

For example, it is reported that up to six top executives at FÁS were paid bigger bonuses than they were entitled to in 2008. These bonuses were approved by the incompetent Mr. Molloy and sanctioned by the Departments of Enterprise and Finance.

Incredibly, the executives have not been asked to pay back the money which FÁS says was paid in error.

If this was a social welfare ‘error’ the applicant would instantly find himself the subject of an investigation and the money would be deducted from his income forthwith.

A spokeswoman for the Department of Enterprise declined to comment. The incompetent Mr. Molloy also declined to comment.

These people are effectively telling the ripped off taxpayer – take a hike, we don’t have to account for how we spend your money.

Despite constant praise from the media the office of the C&AG also has questions to answer.

Former acting chairman of FÁS, Mr. Niall Saul, was told by Mr. Buckley that controls at FÁS were excellent, that there were no serious problems.

Mr. Saul rightly concluded that if the C&AG was a private company it would be lucky not to be fired.

This shouldn’t surprise ripped off taxpayers when we remember the infamous Bord na gCon investigation carried out by the C & AGs office.

Despite findings of at least one case of serious fraud and many other questionable activities the C&AG, who, bizarrely, is also the auditor of Bord na gCon, concluded that

in general the funds of Bord na gCon were properly applied.

As I write another scandal has broken involving the C&AG and the Central Bank. The media is focusing on an error made by the C&AG when he reported that 52 spouses of staff attended meetings on a single trip when in fact the meetings involved several trips.

The real scandal here was the refusal by the C&AG to disclose what organisation was responsible for this alleged abuse of taxpayer’s money.

Once again, Irish citizens had to rely on the media, RTE on this occasion, to provide them with information that should be immediately forthcoming from state agencies.

Just who does Mr. Buckley think he is in refusing this information to Irish citizens? What were his motives in putting the interests of Central Bank staff above the interests of the people he is allegedly representing?

And what does this affair tell us about the new and much praised Central Bank governor, Patrick Honohan?

On the first occasion he is asked to account for his office he tells us to take a hike. Even now he is refusing to disclose who went on the trips or how much they cost. Irish taxpayer’s have a right to know this information.

And what does all this say about the so called reform of the political and financial sectors? Well, it’s obvious;

There is no reform, secrecy is still the name of the game, ripping off the taxpayer is still rampant, lies, half truths and dissembling is still the favoured response and arrogance is still the predominant attitude.

The political, administrative and financial system that has run this country into the ground is beyond reform.

Nothing will change until the Irish people wake up and throw these people and their corrupt system out of office and out of power.

Copy to:
Central Bank
Comptroller & Auditor General
FÁS

Time for Niamh Brennan to come down from her ivory tower

Professor Niamh Brennan is obviously a highly educated woman but unfortunately a good education does not guarantee what I would call an informed intelligence.

Brennan was on the Marian Finucane Show yesterday (Sunday) commenting on a number of matters and it was clear from listening to her that she has no idea what life is like outside of her ivory tower.

On industrial action by public servants.

They should be grateful for the fantastic jobs they have and should be contributing to helping to get us out of this mess.

Clearly, Brennan is unaware that thousands of public and civil servants are living on a pittance and it is those people the Government has targeted for the biggest pay cuts.

She had nothing to say regarding senior civil servants, judges, army officers, and academics like herself who have all received special treatment when it comes to pay cuts.

On the HSE and professor Drumm’s bonus.

Professor Brennan is in agreement with some guy called Gerry Robinson who thinks that professor Drumm should be paid €2 million.

She further defended Drumm’s bonus by saying it was a contractual entitlement and related to a period well before the current public sector pay cuts.

It’s curious how this argument is valid for professor Drumm and the rest of the governing class but invalid for the great unwashed.

On the Government.

According to the professor the rest of the panel were being unfair to the government. She thinks the government is being very effective in speedily recalibrating public sector costs.

If, she continued, the French government took the same action there would be riots. Bizarrely, she suggests that our ability to talk things through, to engage in public soul searching is keeping the rioters at bay.

On the Irish Glass Bottle site scandal.

Professor Brennan is chairperson of Dublin Docklands Development Authority and clearly finds the position a little unnerving.

When asked about the Irish Glass Bottle site scandal she seemed shocked when telling listeners that it cost €412 million but was now only worth €50 million.

Apparently about a third of the remaining €360 million went to Dublin Port and the rest went to a guy called Paul Coulson, who, Brennan tells us is now a fabulously wealthy man as a result of the transaction and, not surprisingly, no longer lives in Ireland.

Dublin Docklands Authority has a curious feature on their website where they publish interesting facts about the area. Here’s the current piece.

Docklands Fact
A downtrodden Leprosy hospice was located on Misery hill, hence its name! It was believed lepers were “the unclean” and would be walked to the hospice on Misery Hill with a man tolling a bell and another carrying a 40 foot pole to keep everyone at safe distance. Today this is where we get the expression “I wouldn’t touch him with a 40 foot pole!”

Ironically, this piece is a perfect metaphor for the position of the taxpayer after the glass bottle site debacle.

All the leper taxpayers are up on Misery Hill paying for the stupidity and greed of the DDA and there’s not a businessman in the world that would touch such an incompetent body with a 40 foot pole.

On child abuse by the Catholic Church.

Brennan was ‘uncomfortable’ with the panel’s criticism of those involved in the child abuse holocaust.

Like most defenders of the Catholic Church she labours under the delusion that only a minority of priests were involved in the horror.

This suggests that she disagrees with the Murphy and Ryan reports which between them found that abuse was systematic, widespread and well planned.

They also found that church authorities went to extreme lengths to cover up the horror thus condemning hundreds, if not thousands, more innocent children to torture and rape.

It really is time professor Brennan came down from that ivory tower.

Revenue: A failed entity

Revenue recently published its preliminary business results for year ending 31 December 2009.

There are some interesting figures in the report. For example, in 2009 there were just 6 convictions for serious tax evasion, 4 more are under consideration by the DPP and there are 78 ongoing investigations.

Special investigations last year generated a total of €114.4 million compared with €54 in 2008.

By any standards these are paltry sums but by Irish standards, where tax evasion is still widespread and still widely seen as a misdemeanor rather than a crime, they are miniscule and they tell us just one thing about the Irish Revenue service – it’s a failure.

But this failure, like the failure of the financial regulator and the Dept. of Finance, is not due to incompetence, it’s due to deliberate, well planned policy.

Tax amnesties are at the core of Revenue’s policy since the disgraceful amnesty of 1993 which, I believe, allowed a good number of serious tax evaders off the hook. As I wrote in 2007:

Ireland is the only country in the world that operates a policy of continuous amnesties for tax criminals, all other jurisdictions preferring the option of law enforcement.

In that article I wrote about Revenue’s lazy and cheap habit of sending out gentle letters to tax evaders offering them all kinds of incentives if they agreed to pay their taxes.

An Irish Independent article on the matter tells us that because of the current budget deficit of €24.6 billion Revenue is taking an aggressive stance on tax evasion (In accountable jurisdictions aggressive action is the norm when it comes to tax evasion).

So what is this ‘new’ aggressive stance by Revenue?

Well, er, they’ve sent out letters to 7,000 people who own second homes or investment properties inviting them to obey the law in relation to capital gains tax. In other words – another tax amnesty.

At the launch of every amnesty law abiding citizens are assured by politicians and officials that henceforth the full force of the law will be brought down on those who fail to pay their due taxes.

These assurances are nothing but lies and the statistics confirms this.

The report (probably due to embarrassment) has nothing to say about the number of people jailed for tax evasion so I gave Revenue a call to find out.

In 2009 just two people received jail sentences but an even more incredible and disgraceful statistic is that between 2000 and 2008 only seven people were put behind bars for tax evasion.

O'Donoghue's 'servants' should also be brought to account

The Sunday Tribune staff is to be congratulated for their hard work and determination in ridding Ireland of at least one of the wasters that rule from on high.

The same cannot be said for the so called civil servants involved in the scandal. In a strategy that is becoming ever more common civil servants demanded an exorbitant sum of money for an FOI in an obvious attempt to suppress information that might be damaging to a politician.

There can be no doubt that this was a deliberate and dishonest action on the part of the civil servants as we now know the information was readily available.

These civil servants were not serving the people of Ireland; they were cravingly and knowingly serving the interests of their greedy and arrogant political master.

They also should be brought to account.

Denial and pretence are the only options in a corrupt state

As always there’s a great deal of anger, comment and analysis surrounding the latest episode of the Fás farce.

But we’ve seen it all before, dozens upon dozens of times. A scandal erupts involving very serious allegations of fraud and corruption.

In an accountable jurisdiction police investigate, bring charges, people go to jail – end of story.

In a corrupt state, the corrupt system moves to protect itself. Set up an endless tribunal, hand the matter over to a powerless committee of politicians, sidetrack the matter to a safe house like the Office of Corporate Enforcement or simply pay off those who have been caught and are threatening to spill the beans.

In a corrupt state it is impossible for any politician, state agency or regulatory body to act against the corrupt without exposing the corrupt system itself.

Denial and pretence are the only options until somebody has the courage to stand up and tell the truth – and then act.

Civil servants still on the gravy train

Kevin Doyle, political reporter for the Evening Herald was on Lunchtime today talking about expenses run up by 25 civil service work directly with Taoiseach Brian Cowen.

Over the past two years these people ran up credit card bills of €52,000 in top class restaurants and pubs.

One card holder ran up a bill of over €3,000 in just one month.

On the 20th December 2007 Mary Harney hosted a dinner for invited guests that cost €1,800.

On the same night civil servants spent €4,000 in different restaurants and bars using six different credit cards.

In response the relevant department said they did not pay for Christmas parties and, I assume, they expect us to believe that waffle.

The fact that this arrogant and greedy waste of our money occurred just recently demonstrates that these people have no intention of getting off the gravy train – until they’re pushed.

FÁS case: Fighting the 'disease' of accountability

In a previous post (Defending a failed state) on the FÁS scandal I outlined the sequence of events:

An anonymous letter was sent to Mary Harney which triggered an internal investigation in FAS which triggered an investigation by the C & AG which triggered an investigation by the PAC and when the PAC completes its investigation in January it will refer back to the C & AG who will conduct yet another investigation (This is where I get facetious) who will refer back to FAS who will refer back to Mary Harney who will refer back to the anonymous letter writer thus completing the circle of madness.

That investigation by the useless C&AG is now complete and the parcel has been, once again, handed back to the useless Public Accounts Committee who, once again, is going to investigate (Irish Independent).

We must remember that there’s logic in maintaining this circle of madness. In a corrupt state it is of the utmost importance that reality is never, never, never actually faced – to do so raises the appalling vista that somebody might be held accountable.

If the ‘disease’ of accountability was allowed to take hold and spread out of control it could threaten those who have a vested interest in protecting the rotten system.

John O'Donaghue and other traitors

Minister of State, Conor Lenihan, was on the Marian Finucane Show (Sunday) parroting the same dishonest arguments made by his aunt, Mary O’Rourke, in defence of John O’Donoghue’s disgraceful abuse of taxpayer’s money. Lenihan did, however, add some twists to his own particular waffle.

Starting off with the usual ‘John is a good friend of mine’, Lenihan said he wouldn’t put pressure on him to explain his actions because that might lead to an inquiry that would involve everything that has happened in the last ten years.

Like his aunt Lenihan then blamed the civil servants:

John O’Donoghue had no hand, act or part in booking reservations; they were all made by civil servants.

He immediately added that he wasn’t blaming the civil servants and later said it was just the administrative system but he wasn’t blaming the system either. Actually, this makes perfect sense in our corrupt state – When bad things happen nobody is ever to blame.

John O’Donoghue is, according to Lenihan, a hard working politician who isn’t interested in a lavish lifestyle but if people want him to properly represent Ireland a price has to be paid. A good example of the price paid by Irish taxpayer’s is revealed in yesterday’s Sunday Tribune.

O’Donoghue spent €472 on a limousine to take him from Terminal 3 in Heathrow airport to Terminal 1 – a journey which would have taken three minutes on the airport’s free shuttle service.

This, according to Linehan, is not lavish?

Like his aunt, Lenihan claimed that O’Donoghue couldn’t make a public statement on the scandal because it might bring the office of Ceann Comhairle into disrepute but he went further by suggesting that the office of Ceann Comhairle was on a par with that of the President and therefore not even a government minister has the right to demand accountability.

That’s a matter for the Ceann Comhairle (accountability), I have an obligation as a Government Minister not to criticise the President. The Ceann Comhairle is in a similar enough position. It’s not really appropriate for a Government minister to go around telling or ordering the Ceann Comhairle or the President of this country what they should or shouldn’t do and I’m not going to start doing that on this programme.

This, of course, is a ridiculous statement and Lenihan should have been nailed by the RTE presenter, Rachel English. She should have forced him to state on what basis he was making such a claim but yet again RTE simply accepted the word of a politician as gospel.

The response to this latest scandal by O’Rourke, Lenihan and politicians in general is as predictable as it is cowardly. They have little interest in the welfare of Irish citizens or the good of the country. They’re only interested in their own enrichment, the enrichment of their fellow politicians and the interests of those who fund and support them.

They are, in a word, traitors.

Copy to:
Conor Lenihan
John O’Donoghue
Marian Finucane Show

The big NAMA question

The critical question surrounding the National Assets Management Authority (NAMA) project is – What price is the Government, on behalf of the taxpayer, going to place on the assets of the various financial institutions?

Here’s how Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan answered the question (Morning Ireland, 1st report, 3rd item).

That is the absolutely fundamental question and we’re working on the valuation of these properties and I will announce on behalf of the Government the approximated, estimated figure for how much state bond will be required in the Dail debate in September…I haven’t finalised the figure yet and of course the announcement of that figure is one of considerable market sensitivity.

Here’s my translation:

I’m not going to answer that question now and if I’m forced to do so in September I will only give an ‘approximated, estimated figure’. I’ll refuse to answer any awkward questions at that time by simply saying that the exact figures are of ‘considerable market sensitivity’.

I agree with the Labour Party’s suggestion that the banks should be temporarily nationalised, a strategy that would cost about €5 billion. That would still leave the taxpayer responsible for billions of bad loans currently held by the banks but at least we would know the risks we are facing and have some degree of control over events.

And that’s exactly what the Government is working to avoid. The Government strategy is actually very simple. It wants to transfer the massive liabilities currently bringing down the financial institutions onto to the shoulders of the taxpayer while at the same time ensuring that those institutions remain, to the greatest extent possible, in private ownership.

Private ownership protects profits and ensures continued state protection, principally by the Financial Regulator, for the widespread criminality that has long infected the Irish financal sector.

The hope is that when the dust settles the banks can return to what they do best – squeezing massive profits out of unprotected consumers. The burden of cleaning up the mess created by the reckless and greedy bankers will be left to generations of future taxpayers.

There is, however, one potentially serious obstacle in the way of this cosy strategy between politicians and their banking masters. Ordinary Irish citizens might not wear it; they might, for the first time in modern history, actually rebel.

An editorial in yesterday’s Sunday Independent on the NAMA question refers to a poll in the same newspaper in which a clear majority were in favour of nationalising the banks. The editorial concluded:

The poll reveals a truly worrying level of cynicism about the beneficiaries of public policy, and that cynicism is poisonous to society.

The Government has a duty to rebuild public faith in the political system and it must start by debating its policy decisions openly and honestly. There cannot be the faintest hint of favouritism or cronyism in a decision that could impoverish a generation and it demands justification on a grand scale.

The Government is gambling the future: the people need to know why, and they need to know who benefits.

Public faith in the political system? Openness and honesty in debating public policy? An end to cronyism?

The present corrupt system of administration in this country will never allow such enlightened policies to emerge; only an actual rebellion will do that.