Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

My intention in requesting the review was to ensure that appropriate public procurement procedures exist to prevent or detect irregularities or wrongdoing and to examine and report on the activities of the FÁS corporate affairs area since 2000. This was in order to achieve reasonable assurance on whether there were any occasions of potential fraud or irregularity in that area other than those already brought to light by the FÁS internal audit unit. The Comptroller and Auditor General confirmed that he would finalise the scope of his new review after the Oireachtas Committee of Public Accounts had completed its hearings with the management of FÁS in October and November 2008 regarding the Comptroller and Auditor General's special report No. 10 and the 2007 FÁS accounts. The report of those hearings issued in February 2009, by which stage the Comptroller and Auditor General had begun preliminary inquiries in his new investigation. This action resulted in the publication of the Comptroller and Auditor General's special report into advertising and promotion in FÁS in September 2009.

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