Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are talking about €1.5 million, more or less, going into and leaving the Vote account. It has been said that this account was for trainee gardaí and that there were various capacity issues within the college. The witness is aware that private accountants audited various activities. This did not provide a clear audit report, which is another shortcoming. There was €1.5 million involved here. There is a memo from 2011 which is raising huge issues about accounts that were closed because they were found to be incorrect. The witness is raising issues already raised by Mr. Culhane on some of the processes in place. Should he check in terms of the employees? Taxpayer's money is going into this account. He is the internal auditor of an Garda Síochána and cannot wash his hands and say that this is a separate entity about which he does not want to know. He should be asking how these people are being employed, what the structure is, how they are being paid, how the tax is being returned, what bank accounts they have, what name are the bank accounts in and how much is in the bank accounts. This is how normal audit procedure works. The witness did not do any of it.