Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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143. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the fraud prevention measures utilised on funding provided through the sports capital grant programme; the investigations that occurred last year; his plans to increase anti-fraud measures; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4351/15]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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The Department has in place a number of controls to ensure that SCP grants are only paid out when the terms and conditions of the Sports Capital Programme have been met.  These are detailed in the letter of provisional allocation that is sent to each grantee when an allocation is made.

Grantees are warned at application and allocation stage that the submission of false or misleading information to the Department at any stage is treated very seriously and that any organisation that does not comply with the terms and conditions of the Sports Capital Programme may be subject to inspection, have their grant withdrawn, be required to repay all or part of a grant and/or be barred from making applications for a period of time.  They are also warned that all serious breaches of the terms and conditions of the Programme will be notified to An Garda Síochána.

The Department has detailed procedures, drawn up in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General, in place for dealing with suspected instances of non-compliance with the terms and conditions of the SCP. 

The Department strives at all times to strike an appropriate balance between the need to ensure the funding is used for the purpose for which it is intended and the need to allow grants to be drawn down in an efficient and timely manner.  In particular, the introduction in 2010 of the requirements for SCP grantees to provide certificates of compliance and proof of payment to suppliers has strengthened the controls to further reduce the risk of non-compliance.  In addition, in line with Department of Public Expenditure Guidelines, a number of “spot checks” of capital projects are carried out by the Capital Inspections Team within the Finance Division of the Department each year.  In 2014 there were 18 such capital inspections of SCP grantees.