Financial controls are not compliant with Garda rules

The report says the Garda Appropriation Accounts 2015 should be amended to reflect that ‘financial controls’ are not ‘compliant’. Garda management must also take control of the controversial cash business away from the College. ‘All revenue from the Garda Restaurant, Shop (including vending machines) and Bar should be brought into the Garda Vote [budget].

RESTAURANT EXPENDITURE

THE audit examined payments from the ‘Garda Restaurant Committee, Garda Training Centre, Bank of Ireland Account from 2009 to 2015.

‘The total expenditure in the Garda College Restaurant for [six years] was €6.49m, of which 43% was spent on staff wages, 38% was spent on food provisions and 19% was spent on miscellaneous expenses.’ ‘Cash transfers’ from this account included €43,500 in 2013, €70,000 in 2014 and €30,000 in 2015. However, €2,785,229 was transferred into the account.

The Restaurant Account also took control of something called the ‘Garda Laundry Account’ from 2008 where expenditure included items such as: ‘Flowers, €200; staff bonus, €500, jewellery and gifts, €300, golf society €1,040.’

It also paid a ‘contribution to Parish Clergy’ of €2,150.

A Restaurant Investment Account in Irish Life fell in value from €1,216,490 in 2009 to €664,683 in 2014.

The Restaurant Account placed money in so-called ‘elevator’ accounts with Bank of Ireland which gave ‘elevated or higher rates of interest that would be offered on normal deposit accounts’.

On January 19, 2012, a lodgement of €150,000 was made to one account. On June 29, €100,000 was lodged. A further €60,000 was lodged that year.

The report points out ‘this was at a time when the Exchequer was at the apex of the fiscal crisis and found it almost impossible to borrow on financial markets and was reliant on the Troika Bailout facility to keep the country going’.

BAR

THERE is a bar in the College’s recreational hall used by staff and students for certain events.

The audit found that St Raphael (Garda Credit Union) Bar account had a balance of €417,068 on October 1, 2010. ‘Since then this balance has been dissipated with large amounts of money being transferred into the Garda Restaurant account’.

The report then details four separate transfers of €100,000, and a further €20,000 over the 2010-2012 period.

‘These substantial transfers were to keep the Restaurant going when student numbers were low. The question that is posed by these transfers of cash is whether the State was best served by these transactions and whether the loss of these resources could have been avoided by more drastic cuts in the operation of the Garda Restaurant and Shop during the period 2009 to 2014’.

GOLF COURSE

THE report recommends that the Garda College Sportsfield Co. Ltd should be wound up.

‘All assets including all associated assets such as the Sportsfield land and golf course land should be taken into State control,’ says the report. ‘All bank … and investment accounts linked with the College should be closed and the balances surrendered,’ it states.

‘All land and buildings should be transferred to the control of the Office of Public Works.’

The Sportsfield Company and the Garda College Restaurant ‘developed through funding’ the Garda College Golf Club. At first the land was leased from An Garda Síochána and then from the OPW. The lease was agreed with the OPW in 1998. A payment of IR£98,000 was agreed with the OPW and a bank draft was sent. The OPW lost the draft. In 2003 the Sportsfield Company paid €106,927.73 by draft to replace the lost draft after the Euro changeover.

DROMAD FARM

The OPW bought a farm for the College for ‘developing a tactical training centre’ for An Garda Síochána and ‘a conference centre for the Justice Sector’. After lying idle for some years during the fiscal crisis it was leased out and brought in ‘€124,903’ in rental income ‘between 2009 and 2013’ which was ‘lodged to the Garda Restaurant Account’.

While there was some evidence that OPW staff were aware of this disbursal of the money, the audit found the Property Management Service of the OPW – responsible for the land – ‘were not aware’.