THE TRADE union Siptu has said it will repay some of the money involved in the controversy over the Skill training programme if any payments are found to have not been properly vouched.
The union said it had lodged €348,000 with a commissioner for oaths in good faith.
However, the amount, if any, which will be repaid will not be decided until an internal investigation which it is carrying out into the Skill payment controversy, is finalised.
Last June, it emerged that €2.3 million in funding from the Skill programme had been paid into a bank account, which was controlled by persons closely associated with Siptu, as part of a grant authorised by the Department of Health.
The union yesterday maintained that it had never sought or known anything about the transfer, and said it had no liability in respect of the money. The annual €250,000 grant was channelled by the Department of Health through Skill, a training programme run by the Health Service Executive (HSE).
In his annual report, the Comptroller and Auditor General highlighted a sum of €348,322 which had been paid into the account, known as the Siptu national health and local authority levy fund, by way of reimbursement of a number of costs, including expenses for Skill programme conferences, travel and subsistence.
The comptroller said that so far, the HSE had been unable to satisfy itself that all of the amounts claimed and paid as reimbursements, represented expenditure properly incurred for the purpose of the Skill programme.
Union sources said last night that the amount lodged by Siptu with a commissioner for oaths was on the basis that this was the sum identified in the comptroller’s report. However, sources said that this did not mean that Siptu would be repaying that amount. The union said that it had never been consulted with regard to money paid into the account.
“We never received an annual report on the account or details of a single transaction conducted through it. It was never audited by our internal or external auditors. We were never once queried by the HSE in relation to this account until we were contacted by its audit team in September 2009.
“However, conscious of our role as a civil society organisation, we are endeavouring to assist in clarifying all the matters at issue. Moreover, we have informed the HSE that, without prejudice, any payments in respect of reimbursement of expenses which cannot be properly vouched will be repaid.”
The Dáil Public Accounts Committee will begin hearings today into the Skill controversy.
