Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 20 December 2012

Public Accounts Committee

2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Chapter 19 - Official Development Assistance
Vote 28 - Foreign Affairs and Trade
Vote 29 - International Co-operation

11:10 am

Mr. Brendan Rogers:

On the question of a receipt, getting a receipt would not have protected us because one of the other donors asked for a receipt and they were given a false receipt. That would have been a false sense of confidence.

The very same people who oversaw this programme had been supporting the auditor general. They had been doing a fantastic job in our embassy supporting the auditor general who identified this malfeasance. That is part of the programme as well. As the Secretary General states, working and living in Africa, which I have done for 11 years, is difficult. One puts oneself in harms way and opens oneself to disease. These are difficult, high risk and pressurised jobs. One can be traumatised by them. The people in Uganda work very hard, working all the hours that God gave them, but as the Secretary General said, if there are issues we need to identify, we will do that. We need to support them in terms of the skills sets available. That is quite clear to me.

Comments

No comments

Log in or join to post a public comment.