Legal advice drives FAI move to refer key report to authorities
Mazars findings handed over to Garda and ODCE
THE board of the FAI has opted to refer a report from global auditing and consulting group Mazars to An Garda Síochána and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE).
Mazars was commissioned by the FAI to look into matters of concern and has completed the long-awaited report.
In a brief statement, the FAI said it was the “appropriate” course of action to hand the details over to the relevant arms of the State. Legal advice guided their decision.
This is the latest development in the protracted fall-out from the end of the John Delaney era.
What are the origins of the Mazars report?
A week after Mr Delaney became executive vice-president, a sub-committee of the FAI board commissioned Mazars “to conduct an independent and in-depth external review” into matters of concern.
How is this different to the other reports?
Sport Ireland brought in Northern Irish firm KOSI for a wide ranging audit of the FAI finances.
ODCE, the corporate watchdog, started a probe arising from a protected disclosure outlining governance concerns. And when auditors Deloitte filed a notice claiming proper accounting records were not being kept by the FAI, that prompted another back and forth that is going through legal channels.
What sets Mazars apart is that it was asked to look into a small number of specific transactions. “It was far more targeted,” as one FAI source put it, with the remit extending beyond the initial request.
Payments allegedly made to Susan Keegan, an ex-girlfriend of Delaney, were among those investigated by Mazars.
The FAI accounts had indicated Keegan had received around €95,000, which was partially attributed to a role as a match agent arranging friendly games. Ms Keegan has denied receiving the majority of the money.
What were the options open to the FAI?
There was considerable public interest in the Mazars report as it was mentioned consistently throughout the last year as a body of work that may potentially shed light on the events of a controversial period. It is also worth noting that the current board were not in situ when Mazars was commissioned.
While details of the draft report emerged earlier this year, the Irish Independent understands that only a handful of the present board have read the final completed work – though the rest have been encouraged to do so.
Legal advice was sought, and the viewpoint was that the right thing to do was to hand the report over to the Garda and the ODCE. The alternative would have been to release a redacted version, but the fear was this could prejudice other investigations.
What happens now?
The relevant authorities who have been furnished with the report will decide how to take it forward and determine how it sits in with any enquiries they have ongoing. Mazars conducted a number of interviews, so the information that came out of its investigation could now be followed up on.
Earlier this week, the ODCE reached agreement with Mr Delaney over how documents from the FAI can be inspected.