Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 20 June 2017

Public Accounts Committee

2015 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 20 - Garda Síochána - Internal Audit Report on Garda College, Templemore (Resumed)

9:00 am

Ms Nóirín O'Sullivan:

As I said, there are several points I would like to clarify because many were raised in the Vice Chairman's question. Perhaps I may deal with them in sequence. The first point related to why I referred on the matters that I received a report on yesterday. Mr. Kelly, the head of internal audit, who, as members know, has a statutory function, told me that he considers there is sufficient suspicion that fraud may have been committed in respect of a particular account. On that basis, I decided to refer the matter to the Department and the Policing Authority. As I said, my colleagues Mr. Kelly and deputy commissioner Ó Cualáin informed the chair of the audit committee, the Comptroller and Auditor General and OLAF. Those are the appropriate steps to take.

In July 2015, I became aware that a number of issues had been identified in regard to broader activities of the Garda College.

This is a very specific issue and there is reasonable cause to suspect that fraud has been committed on an account. That is why the matter was referred to GSOC yesterday to examine the report and to make further inquiries to see if a criminal offence has been committed.

Comments

Robert Hand
Posted on 24 Jun 2017 3:39 pm (Report this comment)

Indicating that none of those notified are signatories of Cabra Account?!

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