Bus ‘bribes’ dismissed by f irm’s own inquiry

Whistleblower’s allegations rejected despite f ive employees’ ethics breaches

FIVE Bus Éireann employees have been disciplined for breaching their code of conduct in the past three years, the company’s CEO admitted this week.

However, a confidential company report of an internal investigation into allegations of corruption made by a whistleblower has found no evidence to substantiate his claims.

Appearing before the Oireachtas Transport Committee this week, Bus Éireann chief executive Martin Nolan said that five members of staff had been disciplined for breaking company ethics rules in recent years.

Further questions about allegations of wrongdoing in the €166m school transport scheme could not be aired based on legal advice.

Separately however, Bus Eireann completed and sent an internal report into the claims to Transport Minister Leo Varadkar’s officials.

A copy, seen exclusively by the Irish Mail on Sunday, stresses that there is no evidence to back up any of the original whistleblower’s claims. ‘ The company believes that the contractor making the complaint is incorrect, and although he may genuinely believe some of the allegations he is making, his own evidence is contradictory, the other parties deny the allegations strongly, and Bus Éireann’s own procurement records do not support the allegations,’ it reads.

The report stresses that Bus Éireann believes a rival company has deliberately sought to orchestrate a campaign against it by manipulating the whistleblower. It also states that the whistleblower is a ‘vulnerable person, whose personal circumstances are being cynically exploited by others’. To back this up, the report cites a letter from the whistleblower’s family in which they say he should not be believed. The company said the family had given it permission to use this letter ‘in defending its reputation’.

Contacted by the MoS last night, the whistleblower said: ‘I don’t want this to become a family matter but they all have contracts with Bus Éireann so how can that BUS Éireann investigators have recommended that the company should review its policy of allowing employees to use contractors for personal taxi services.

‘The investigation team made a recommendation that the company should review the practice of employees using contractors for personal taxi purposes even though they paid be treated impartially?’ He also rejected Bus Éireann’s assertion that he is being used. ‘I could never get anyone in the school transport office to listen to me,’ he said. ‘But I’m telling the truth and that’s all I ever wanted to do.’

A secret tape of his interview with Bus Éireann investigators, revealed in this paper – in which the whistleblower was repeatedly told that his account was not believed – seems to contradict a summary report of the company’s inquiry previously sent by chief for these,’ the confidential report reads. The report suggested that either such contractors should not be used at all, or else that employees should be advised to retain receipts for such services.

But it warned that prior to any change the ‘HR and legal implications of this recommendation’ would have to be studied. executive Martin Nolan to the Public Accounts Committee.

Committee chairman John McGuinness has said the apparent discrepancy – and the possibility that the PAC may have been misled – will now be examined.

The report reads: ‘Whereas we cannot categorically conclude that it has never happened, there is no evidence to suggest that any gift has been accepted by any individual in a manner that breaches the company’s Code of Business Ethics.’