An internal report carried out by Siptu has criticised two senior union figures over the administration of a controversial bank account into which millions of euro in State funding was lodged without the knowledge of the leadership.
The report of a sub-committee of Siptu's trustees, which was published this afternoon, says €4.493 million was paid into the account known as the Siptu national health and local authority levy fund, since it was opened in 1998.
The Siptu trustees' report says that the account had been opened without the authorisation of the union’s general officers or the head of finance and administration.
It says that the money paid into the account was not for the benefit of the union.
The account received over €2 million from the Department of Health/HSE, nearly €1 million from a health service partnership forum, nearly €800,000 from a local authority partnership body.
For the first time the report reveals that €100,000 paid into the account came from Beaumont Hospital.
The account has been the subject of much controversy over the last year following concerns raised that some of the money had been used to pay for foreign trips undertaken by senior civil servants and health service officials.
The account was described at the Dail Public Accounts Committee last year as "a slush fund".
The report says that travel and associated costs constituted about 13.9 per cent of the total expenditure from the account.
The bulk of the money went on the provision of training.
The report says that the signatories of the account were Matt Merrigan, a full-time senior official of the union and Jack Kelly, a former member of Siptu’s national executive committee.
The report says that within Siptu those who had a knowledge of some of the trips believed that they were trips directly funded by State agencies.
“Within State agencies it appears the frequent travellers believed that the trips were arranged and paid for by a fund controlled and administered by Mr Merrigan.
The report says that mechanisms of accountability within Siptu were not sufficiently robust.
In a statement, the Department of Health said it had received a copy of the report.
"The issues dealt with in the report were the subject of examination by the Committee of Public Accounts (PAC) of the 30th Dáil and it is expected that they will be considered further by that Committee when it has been reconstituted by the current Dáil."
The department noted the committee, at its meeting of December 16th last, had requested a joint analysis by the Department and the HSE on the totality of the Skill programme and the partnership programme when the Siptu report became available.
"The department will now work with the HSE to prepare the analysis requested by the PAC," it said.
