Seán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

The first area in which issues arose from this audit pertained to some documents relating to contract extensions and tendering procedures not being available for inspection at the time of the audit. This will require a substitution of expenditure of €20,040 or 0.1% of the total claim. The second and main area in which the issues arose related to the accrual accountancy methodology used by FÁS for reconciling the initial cost estimates of contracted training for the unemployed with payments made in respect of a number of actual participants. The adjustment to convert from the estimated accrued cost to the actual cost was not calculated correctly to the tune of approximately €165,000, which represents less than 0.2% of the overall FÁS claim. Alternative FÁS spending on skills training for the unemployed will be substituted for both of these amounts in the next claim and, therefore, there will be no loss to the Exchequer.

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