Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 59: To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the action she has taken to address financial misspending concerns in FÁS; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [41988/08]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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The Comptroller and Auditor General in his report on non-commercial Semi-State bodies, published in May 2008, reviewed the issues raised in one specific FÁS internal audit report.

I discussed this matter with the Director General of FÁS and have expressed my concerns about the issues raised by both the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Internal Audit report, and in particular, the need to secure value for money in public expenditure.

On my instruction, the Secretary General of my Department wrote to FÁS on 30 June 2008 seeking the formal assurance of the Director General of FÁS that: the practices outlined in the FÁS Internal and Comptroller and Auditor General Audit Reports had ceased; that adequate systems and controls are in place to prevent any recurrence; and requesting details of the remedial actions taken by FÁS in respect of the issues raised by the audit reports, with quarterly progress reports on the implementation of the Audit Reports recommendations.

The FÁS Director General replied on 1 July 2008 confirming that the unacceptable practices referred to in the Audit Reports had ceased. A further response was received at the end of October, which set out the progress being made on the issue of controls on procurement and the observance of the procurement policy of FÁS.

Following discussions with the Chairman and the Director General of FÁS, I decided that there should be an external investigation into the effectiveness of the financial management and control systems that are generally in place in FÁS, rather than be limited to aspects raised in the internal audit report which gave rise to the earlier Special Report. I therefore requested the Comptroller and Auditor General to consider doing such a review and he has acceded to that request. My intention in requesting this review is to ensure that appropriate public procurement procedures exist to prevent or detect irregularities or wrongdoing and to also examine and report on the activities of the FÁS Corporate Affairs area since 2000, in order to achieve reasonable assurance as to whether there were any occasions of potential fraud or irregularity in that area other than those already brought to light by FÁS Internal Audit Unit.

It is a matter for the Comptroller and Auditor General to determine the scope of his investigation. The Comptroller and Auditor General has indicated that in doing so he will take into account the deliberations of the Public Accounts Committee hearings on the FÁS element of his Special Report on Semi-State Bodies.