Why did Pobal take nine weeks to release audit?
AS part of due diligence research on candidates in advance of October’s Presidential election, the MoS conducted a routine examination of all the accounts of Pieta House since it was formed in 2006. This revealed that in 2012 the charity had made a provision for a liability arising from ‘a misinterpretation by Pieta’ of allowable grant spending.
On September 18 – six weeks before the Presidential election – we made a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to Pobal for its audit. Routine FOI requests are typically concluded within four weeks, but this request took longer because Pobal had an obligation to contact third parties, such as Joan Freeman. On October 18 – more than a week before the election – we asked Mrs Freeman to allow the release of the records. Failing that, we asked her to outline how the Pobal grant was spent, and what role – if any – she played in this matter as she was CEO at the time.
In response, a spokesman said that ‘sometimes the allocation of grants can be misinterpreted between capital and administration’.
However, Senator Freeman refused to go any further saying the decision to publish the material did not rest with her since she was no longer CEO of Pieta House. Pobal released the material, which it deemed to be in the public interest, on November 23 – almost a month after the election.