SIPTU official got 1000e a day..

[thedaras]

It appears it wasn't just the government/banks/property developers...

SIPTU official got €1,000 a day from HSE's €2.35m slush fund
By Eilish O'Regan and Ann Marie Walsh
Thursday October 07 2010

A FORMER trade union boss was entitled to fees of up to €1,000 a day for chairing each meeting of the group overseeing the controversial state training scheme for health workers, the Irish Independent has learned.

SIPTU's Billy Attley chaired the steering group for the €60m 'Skill' training scheme, which will be at the centre of a hearing by the Dail Committee on Public Accounts today.

A damning internal Heath Service Executive (HSE) audit has found that €2.35m paid into a SIPTU account to administer the scheme was poorly accounted for, with money lavished on foreign study trips, taxis and a private pension.

The union announced last night that it had lodged €348,000 with the Commissioner for Oaths "in good faith". This is equal to a sum that the auditors found could not be accounted for.

A SIPTU spokesman again insisted that the account was not in the control of the union. But he said the union had told the HSE it would reimburse any expenses that could not be properly accounted for.

Expenses

Mr Attley, who was appointed to the chair in 2004, told this newspaper he was entitled to up to €1,000 for chairing each meeting, but only claimed half that for half-day meetings held every second month.

Mr Attley said he was also entitled to unspecified expenses that he did not claim.

The audit report showed that he had been paid €26,750 up to the end of 2009.

He rejected claims that the steering group was at fault for not monitoring the €2.35m fund, saying its brief was to approve training programmes.

"We had no control over finance. We had no role in that area -- that was the responsibility of the HSE," he added.

The report revealed yet more waste of the €2.35m. It found:

The Skill office clocked up service costs of €526,444, none of which were tendered for.
One journey involved a taxi from Dublin to Kilkenny, a wait for the client and a return to Dublin at a cost of €432.
Another involved a journey from St James's Hospital in Dublin to Tullamore, returning to the capital via Louth and Dublin Airport, at a cost of €544.
In evidence to the audit committee, one of the union officials with access to the account said the Department of Health gave him the grant with no guidelines or terms and conditions as to how the money should be spent.

- Eilish O'Regan and Ann Marie Walsh

Irish Independent

 

[Sunny]

Unbelieveable.

 

[ninsaga]

Could this be one of the reasons we havn't heard the unions come out and blast the government for waste spending to date - given that their own bibs are dirty also!

 

[Purple]

Ah, but the info posted above is from the Indo and they have an anti-union agenda so it must all be made up.

 

[Complainer]

Outrageous stuff going on here.

Was Attley a SIPTU employee at the time? I'd wonder who actually managed the account - who signed the cheques?

 

[becky]

We heard here there is a person 'off duty' since this controversy was first spoken about. He is a highly paid union staff member who was very involved in this project.

 

[Howitzer]

I'm not surprised. My outrage level has barely risen.

However if I was member of this, or any other Union, at this moment in time I think I'd be feeling like a bit of a sap. Especially if I'd been buying the bull that's been emenating from that general direction for the last few years.

Not an isolated case I'd imagine.

 

[Slash]

This was only one of a number of slush funds put in place to keep the unions on side during the era of social partnership. Putting senior union officials on the board of FAS was another.

 

[thedaras]

Ah, but the info posted above is from the Indo and they have an anti-union agenda so it must all be made up.

How true but how about this one from the Irish Times..

Further Siptu payments revealed

Siptu will repay some training money if payments unvouched | 07/10/2010
MARTIN WALL, Industry Correspondent

The Department of Finance has revealed that money from a local authority partnership fund was also paid into the Siptu?linked bank account at the centre of the Skill controversy.

The Dail Public Accounts Committee heard today that that the money in question originally came from the Department of Environment. However, it did not have details of the amount involved.

The revelation means that the Siptu National Health and Local Authority Levy Fund has received funding from three separate state sources.

The committee also heard that a senior official of Dublin City Council also took part in one of the foreign trips under investigation.

Yesterday, Siptu said it will repay some of the money involved in the controversy over the Skill training programme if any payments are found to have not been properly vouched. The union said it had lodged €348,000 with a commissioner for oaths in good faith.

However, the amount, if any, which will be repaid will not be decided until an internal investigation which it is carrying out into the Skill payment controversy, is finalised.

Last June, it emerged that €2.3 million in funding from the Skill programme had been paid into a bank account, which was controlled by persons closely associated with Siptu, as part of a grant authorised by the Department of Health.

The union yesterday maintained that it had never sought or known anything about the transfer, and said it had no liability in respect of the money. The annual €250,000 grant was channelled by the Department of Health through Skill, a training programme run by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

In his annual report, the Comptroller and Auditor General highlighted a sum of €348,322 which had been paid into the account, known as the Siptu national health and local authority levy fund, by way of reimbursement of a number of costs, including expenses for Skill programme conferences, travel and subsistence.

The comptroller said that so far, the HSE had been unable to satisfy itself that all of the amounts claimed and paid as reimbursements, represented expenditure properly incurred for the purpose of the Skill programme.

Union sources said last night that the amount lodged by Siptu with a commissioner for oaths was on the basis that this was the sum identified in the comptroller?s report. However, sources said that this did not mean that Siptu would be repaying that amount. The union said that it had never been consulted with regard to money paid into the account.

?We never received an annual report on the account or details of a single transaction conducted through it. It was never audited by our internal or external auditors. We were never once queried by the HSE in relation to this account until we were contacted by its audit team in September 2009.

?However, conscious of our role as a civil society organisation, we are endeavouring to assist in clarifying all the matters at issue. Moreover, we have informed the HSE that, without prejudice, any payments in respect of reimbursement of expenses which cannot be properly vouched will be repaid.?

Lets see how they dismiss the Times..

 

[Sunny]

Did you also see the breakdown of their travel for the past five or six years in the Irish Times. Amazing how they always had a trip to either New York, Boston or Australia that just so happened to co-incide with St Patricks day. Complete and utter disgrace. They all had their noses in the trough and as usual nothing will happen apart from feigned shock on disgust on Prime Time and then quickly move until the next time.

Social Partnership my This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language. Excuse the language. The Unions have shown themselves to be no better than the executives and politicans who have destroyed this Country. Is there anyone in a position of power in this Country with morals or a sense of ethical behaviour?

 

[Caveat]

The Unions have shown themselves to be no better than the executives and politicans who have destroyed this Country.

Did you expect any more from them?

Most union officials in my experience are despicable grubby little jumped up morons with brass necks. They are on average worse than the typical capitalist as they are just as greedy in climbing their own corporate ladder but they tend to have an axe to grind to boot.

 

[thedaras]

Plus 1 @ Sunny.

@Caveat..You got that so right..

Thing is they always claim to have the moral high ground...they are falling slowly from it
.

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

H. L. Mencken

 

[shnaek]

"Man of Honor" - not many of those about these days.

 

[Complainer]

Did you also see the breakdown of their travel for the past five or six years in the Irish Times. Amazing how they always had a trip to either New York, Boston or Australia that just so happened to co-incide with St Patricks day.

The same thought struck me when I saw mention of trips in March. Did you see something more specific than 'March'?

 

[Sunny]

The same thought struck me when I saw mention of trips in March. Did you see something more specific than 'March'?

As far as I can remember they were at least week long trips that always included the 17th. They don't give the exact breakdown online but the exact dates are in the print version of the paper.

 

[Yorrick]

Why are you surprised by all this ?

When Gilmore Geraghty and Rabbitte were top Union officials they were being paid wages far in excess of what anyTD got.
History shows that the Left Winger is as good as any of the rest when it comes to putting the snout in the trough.
As said in Britain when a Tory politician gets in trouble its usually women or little boys but with Labour its usually to do with money

 

[Complainer]

As said in Britain when a Tory politician gets in trouble its usually women or little boys but with Labour its usually to do with money

Would you care to be more specific about when Labour have 'got into trouble' about money?

 

[Sunny]

Why are you surprised by all this ?

When Gilmore Geraghty and Rabbitte were top Union officials they were being paid wages far in excess of what anyTD got.
History shows that the Left Winger is as good as any of the rest when it comes to putting the snout in the trough.
As said in Britain when a Tory politician gets in trouble its usually women or little boys but with Labour its usually to do with money

I don't think it surprises anyone. Union leaders have been milking the system for a long time. When the leaders of unions get packages that are multiples of what their own members get, you would have to question the whole idea of worker solidarity.

In the past couple of years we have the seen the Church, Political System, Legal System, Banking System and the Trade Unions completely fail in their moral duties and responsibilities. This country is now a complete and utter rudderless mess. We are about to head in what is going to be three or four years of tough budgets and we have to read stories like this. I am in a well paid job and I can get a job abroad if needs be so am luckier than most and I would not consider myself to be the protesting sort but even I have had enough at this stage.

 

[thedaras]

Wasn't there talk of some huge make over for the head office in Siptu?
Did this go ahead?

The sad thing is that the members of unions were being led to believe that these guys were looking out for there members interests..and sadder still the members believed it all and paid for the pleasure..

 

[csirl]

Time to grow a beard and start shouting "up the workers"

I think there's a strong element of dissaffection among union officials. Many first got involved in unions due to having some sort of gripe and have chips on their shoulders and often feel that the world owes them something. They also see themselves as fighting against the "establishment". Taking everything going, particularly if it is funded by the "establishment" is their way of getting back at society.