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
10:30 am
John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
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From my perspective, having read the report and looked into this, those who perpetrated this knew the follow-up and requisite financial checking systems were not being employed by the donors and used this to their advantage. They saw an opportunity, which was partly created by the piecemeal nature of the PRDP as well as the fact that in some cases donors throughout the system, including Ireland, did not bother asking for receipts and no attempt was made to know when money was shifted from one bank account to another. Perhaps some good will come of this and it will be dealt with in Ireland and other donor countries.
While there was definitely collusion at the highest levels of government departments and at the Bank of Uganda, there was also a fundamental breakdown in basic financial management and accountability in our embassy and others. Having read the report, that is fair to say. Hopefully, some good will come out of this. I think it will.
I want to shift emphasis. The report refers to $700,000 recovered in kind from UNICEF in respect of losses incurred in a programme in Sierra Leone managed by that body. The programmed involved the provision of therapeutic food. This was reported in late September. Does Mr. Cooney have the details?