FÁS Board Members will resign

The chairman of Ireland's national training and employment agency FÁS has said that all its board members will resign in the wake of a report which showed a massive waste of taxpayer money.

Speaking earlier today on the This Week programme on RTÉ Radio 1, Peter McLoone (left) - who is in his day job the Secretary General of IMPACT, Ireland's largest public service trade union - stated there was "no time frame" from either the Taoiseach or the Tánaiste for the appointment of a new board, but that this was something to be clarified early next week.

He emphasised that the present board was only appointed in 2006 and was therefore "not responsible for earlier follies and misbehaviour" inside the agency. However, the board would not stand in the way of change and co-operate completely with the transition.

McLoone defended the board's actions and said it had "dealt with any issues that came before us". He and the whole board would "take responsibility for anything that happened while we were in office".

The move follows strong criticism of wasteful expenditure, including massive overspending on promotion at the agency, specified in detail in a report by John Buckley, Ireland's Comptroller & Auditor General, who investigated FÁS for almost a year. (see my entry of September 10th)

The investigation was ordered last year by the Tánaiste Mary Coughlan (right), who is in her capacity as Ireland's Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment responsible for FÁS.

However, she only acted after the independent Senator Shane Ross (left) had - in a lengthy and painstaking investigation of his own - exposed massive irregularities and waste of taxpayers' money on a colossal scale inside the state agency.

Without courageous and independent people like Shane Ross the truth about FÁS might still be unknown to us and subject to the usual government cover-up and denial.

The Emerald Islander

Massive Waste of Taxpayers' Money in FÁS

Ireland's national training and employment agency FÁS (Foras Áiseanna Saothair) has wasted vast amounts of taxpayers' money and exceeded its budgets regularly.

A new report by Ireland's Comptroller & Auditor General John Buckley, which is the result of a nearly year-long investigation, highlights "a substantial and prolonged breakdown in budgetary control" at the state agency.

One of the agency's most significant follies is a case especially highlighted in the report: FÁS did spend more than € 600,000 on a television advertisement that was never broadcast.

Mr. Buckley also found that general spending in FÁS exceeded budgets by up to 66%.

Nearly a year ago, when the scandalous money-wasting of FÁS became public knowledge, he was given the task to investigate the agency. (see my entries of September 22nd & 23rd, 2008)

Between 2002 and 2008, FÁS spent over € 48 million alone on advertising and promotional activities. This is the largest advertising spend in the non-commercial state sector, and for most of the period audited Ireland had almost full employment. Which means the agency had hardly anything to do and only very few 'customers'.

The Comptroller & Auditor General also found that budgetary control in FÁS was "poor" and expenditure in this area exceeded budgets by 38%.

As well as the € 600,000 spent on the un-used television advertisement, the agency spent a further € 600,000 with no services at all delivered.

Criticising the wasteful expenditure of FÁS, John Buckley said that "public procurement requirements were not met".

Overall, the report finds that advertising and promotional activities lacked strategic direction and that much of the advertising was ineffective in increasing awareness of FÁS services.

On the basis of what is known by now, there are good reasons to abolish FÁS as an independent agency and to divide its obligations between two government departments: Education (for the training elements) and Enterprise, Trade & Employment (for the work-related and employment duties).

It would also be sensible to prosecute FÁS employees who were responsible for the enormous spending spree and the massive waste of taxpayers' money and try to re-coup as much of it as possible from guilty individuals.
But as things are in Ireland, this is rather unlikely. Those close to the government here get away with everything and are never punished. The ordinary Irish people are instead burdened with the costs of government follies and the many failures and mistakes of its countless agencies.
If one would not know better, one might think Ireland is still a feudal state in the Middle Ages.

The Emerald Islander

For further details about the scandals and wastefulness of FÁS see also my entries of November 22nd, 25th, 26th & 27th, 2008.

Cowen praises disgraced former FÁS Boss

Taoiseach Brian Cowen (left) has commended the former FÁS Director General Rody Molloy, who resigned in disgrace late last night (see yesterday's entry), "on his decision to step down".

Cowen said that Molloy, a fellow Offaly man, had "made a valuable contribution to FÁS" and that "his resignation showed that confidence in him was justified because he has proved himself to be accountable".

When I heard these words, I first feared that there was something wrong with my ears.

But no, Cowen did indeed praise Rody Molloy (right), an unrepentant and arrogant sponger and selfish waster of taxpayers' money, who was forced to step down after eight years as Director General of the state's employment and training authority, after the brave independent Senator Shane Ross exposed the corrupt practices in the senior echelons of FÁS and the colossal amounts of money Molloy and some of his fellow directors had spent on themselves and on lavish corporate entertainment and foreign travel.

One has to pause here for a moment, let this sink in and reflect.

Molloy is a man who - as a public servant - wasted huge amounts of our money on things that were neither necessary nor justifiable. A man whose attitude was - and still is - that, as a large pig at the state's through, he was "entitled" to only the best and took uncontrolled advantage of every possible perk he could get.
And then there is the country's Prime Minister (and former Minister for Finance), who not only gave this man his "full support" when the scandal broke, saying that he was "a very good public servant", but who now - after his forced resignation - still praises him in the highest possible way, as if Molloy had just found the cure for cancer.

This is outrageous, and a scandal in itself! And adding his insult to the immense injury Molloy has caused the nation, Cowen describes him as "accountable". Has the Taoiseach now lost his mind completely?!
Accountable? If there is anything specifically Rody Molloy was not, then it is accountable.
He would still sit in his comfortable chair and enjoy the lifestyle of a king, had Senator Shane Ross not exposed the scandal.

Over the now six months as Taoiseach, Brian Cowen has shown no leadership qualities, but instead demonstrated on many occasions his incompetence, arrogance and lack of judgement. He has also again and again exposed his short-sighted and narrow-minded views on major policies, and in all this also been extremely rude, foul-mouthed and ill-mannered. In short, he is by far the worst Taoiseach this country has ever had.

But today's statement has added a new dimension to Brian Cowen. He has now publicly stated that he approves of corruption, spongers and the massive waste of taxpayers' money on a luxury lifestyle for the senior civil servants of this country. And all this at a time when we are in deep recession and face the worst financial crisis in living memory.

Anyone who can tolerate Brian Cowen any longer as the leader of our government and country must be completely blind, deaf and totally without moral fibre. The man is an utter disgrace and should resign as Taoiseach - and as TD - immediately!

However, he is still muddling on and pretends nothing has happened. And even the opposition is not (yet) willing to attack him in the way he deserves.

During Leaders' Questions in the Dáil today Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny (left) only said that "the entire board of FÁS should also consider their positions". Quite right, and well put!
But Kenny should have called for the resignation of Brian Cowen and his Tánaiste Mary Coughlan - who, as Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment, is directly responsible for FÁS - as well.

Yesterday Kenny highlighted a € 410 bill from a nail and beauty salon in Florida, which was paid with an official FÁS credit card. He asked if this was what taxpayers' money should be spent on, and again he was spot on.
This one outrageous example is, however, only the tip of the iceberg. Kenny could and should have been a lot more forceful on the matter, and we all would have applauded him.
But one of the problems with Fine Gael is that they are way too soft on the government and let Cowen and his cronies get away with too much incompetence, arrogance and blunder.

Meanwhile FÁS says that it will "announce the appointment of an acting Director General for an interim period, pending the recruitment of a full-time successor to Mr. Molloy".
It does not surprise me that they are very fast in shoring up the damage, as they are still hoping to get away with their scandalous culture of self-serving perks. What happened over years was not only done by Rody Molloy, although he was in charge, set the example and approved of everything. There were and still are many more culprits in the organisation, and they should go as well. How could we ever again trust FÁS if they remained in their positions?

Fine Gael TD Bernard Allen, the chairman of the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee (PAC), said that Rody Molloy had "no choice but to resign".
He told RTÉ that he had hoped to have him before the committee tomorrow, to ask him to explain his € 5.7 million expenditure for 2007. But with his resignation Molloy escaped this planned grilling by TDs.

Rody Molloy's resignation is unlikely to end questions about financial controls at FÁS, especially as the PAC and the Comptroller and Auditor General were already investigating spending at the organisation for quite some time. (see my entries of September 22nd & 23rd)
In a statement FÁS has said it will "continue to co-operate with the investigations", which will now want to know more about financial controls in the organisation, and how closely spending by senior management was supervised by the board and the government.

Well, they don't really have a choice, have they? The cat is out of the bag now, and everyone in the country knows about the scandalous practices at FÁS. People are rightfully outraged, and they want to see this quagmire of corruption and self-serving arrogance drained and sorted out once and for all.
In my opinion the best solution would be to abolish the whole organisation and replace it with a smaller, better and more efficient agency, directly controlled by the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment. But in order to get that, we first need a new minister in charge of this department.

The Emerald Islander

Rody Molloy resigns as Director General of FÁS, the National Money Wasting Authority

This evening Rody Molloy (right) has resigned as the Director General of the Irish training and employment authority FÁS.
It appears that the former career civil servant, who had been in charge of FÁS for the past eight years, jumped before he could be pushed by his political masters.

Since the publication (in the Sunday Independent) of a detailed investigation into FÁS and its lavish and extravagant spending of public money on the senior executives, Molloy had come under severe pressure from the media and from various opposition politicians, in particular the Fine Gael spokesman of Enterprise and Trade, Dr. Leo Varadkar, TD.

Only yesterday morning Rody Molloy appeared on the Today programme with Pat Kenny on RTÉ Radio 1 and defended in a very grandeur manner his extraordinary spending spree. Charlie Haughey could not have done it any better.
Being confronted by Pat Kenny with the findings of the investigation, Molloy showed not a bit of regret or remorse. He had no specific answers to the allegations and only repeated the mantra that he had "done nothing wrong". With amazing arrogance he stated that he was "entitled" to first class flights to the USA, and then admitted that he had "traded them in for business class tickets", so he could take his wife along on official trips - at the taxpayers' expense.
He also said that the over $ 900 of FÁS money he spent on a single game of golf and a $ 400 bill from a 'beauty and nail bar' in Florida "was just chicken feed" compared with the overall budget of his organisation. Well, this showed clearly the man's attitude as a shameless sponger who was habitually spending taxpayers' money on his lavish personal lifestyle.

Molloy's resignation is not more than right, but he is only the proverbial tip of the wasteful and outrageous iceberg that is FÁS. And this is only one of the many state agencies, which might well have practiced the same lavish lifestyle as FÁS has.

Officially Foras Áiseanna Saothair (FÁS) is the national training and employment authority of the Republic of Ireland. It was established by the government in January 1988 under the Labour Services Act 1987.

But - as the investigation by the independent Senator Shane Ross (left) under the Freedom of Information Act has revealed - FÁS is really the national money wasting authority.

And with a weekly budget of more than € 20 million there is a lot of money to waste. Much, it appears, is spent on lavish corporate entertainment for senior staff of the state agency, as well as on frequent luxury trips to the USA.

Since Senator Ross has done all the work and research, he deserves the full credit for it and I will not repeat his findings here in detail. If you want to read them - and I would highly recommend that you do - go to > http://www.shane-ross.ie/archives/422/fas-chiefs-enjoy-a-good-life/

The article makes definitely very interesting reading and opens one's eyes to the appalling and scandalous way in which the top brass of FÁS, which is supposed to create new jobs and train Irish people who are out of work, spends taxpayers' money on themselves.

It is quite unbelievable that during the boom times of the 'Celtic Tiger', when there was virtually full employment in Ireland, the annual budget of FÁS has risen to one billion Euros. Obviously there were very few people who needed jobs then, so the FÁS management decide to spend the money on themselves.

According to its own website, FÁS has provided services for an average of 89,000 people per annum in the past few years. This means that - statistically - they spent € 11,235.95 on each of these job seekers and trainees. One does not have to be a mathematical genius to work out that they would never spend so much money on one unemployed individual.
But as it appears, the 'clients' were only an inconvenient burden for FÁS. Its real purpose was and perhaps still is to have a safe and well-paid public service job with plenty of lavish perks, all at the taxpayers' expense.
The few times I had dealings with them I always felt that they saw 'clients' as an inconvenient interruption of their internal meetings, coffee breaks and other things that went on behind closed doors. FÁS is not really interested in the general public of Ireland. It is far more concerned with its own little world, planet FÁS.

I wonder how much Molloy will receive now as a 'golden handshake'. In my opinion he should be receiving nothing at all! In fact, the Department of Finance should go through his expenses with a very fine comb and claw back all the money he wasted on private entertainment.

Rody Molloy had been scheduled to appear before the Oireachtas' Public Accounts Committee, which will be sitting on Thursday. I wonder if he will still turn up, or if he will use his resignation as an excuse for not accounting for his wasteful and scandalous behaviour.

However, people like Rody Molloy, who comes from the Taoiseach's home county Offaly and has a cosy relationship with Brian Cowen for a long time, are - as I mentioned above - only the tips of the iceberg of waste that has been built up in the Irish civil and public service under the rule of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, himself a man with a cavalier attitude to money.

I bet that there are plenty of people like Rody Molloy, who have spent taxpayers' money with both hands, but without any concern or prudency, over the past ten years of boom. Their lavish lifestyle was of course inspired by the late Charles J. Haughey, and further encouraged by Bertie Ahern and Brian Cowen.
Haughey is dead now, and thus has escaped the unravelling of this scandal. But both Ahern and Cowen are still with us and should be held accountable as well for their share of the waste and mis-spending of public funds.

Responsibility also falls on the shoulders of the 15 members of the Board of FÁS, who have done nothing to prevent or stop the misuse of public money by the agency's senior executives. Either they were asleep for the past eight years, or they are not up to their job. So the least they could and should do now is to resign and make the way free for a complete overhaul and reorganisation of FÁS.
Some analysts have already suggested that the agency cannot survive in its present form, and I would support the idea of scrapping it, in favour of a more streamlined and target-orientated new national employment agency.

It will be quite interesting to see how many more skeletons will be found in the cupboards of the numerous Irish state agencies. Many of these organisations, for which there is really no need in a small country like Ireland, were created by Bertie Ahern to create extra jobs 'for the boys (and girls)' of Fianna Fáil. The best way to deal with them - and their wasteful behaviour - would be to abolish them again. But before that can happen, we will need a new government.

Only yesterday Taoiseach Brian Cowen (right) has stated publicly that "he knows Rody Molloy" (of course he does, as they come from the same county) and that he is "a very good public servant".
Such demonstrative loyalty and support for an exposed sponger and systematic waster of taxpayers' money shows that Cowen is completely out of touch with reality and certainly not fit to lead the government and the country.
For him the loyalty to an old pal might be a question of rural principles, but it is not the behaviour we expect from the Taoiseach, especially at a time when he and his Finance Minister Brian Lenihan are making us all suffer for the economic failures and financial imprudence of his - and his preecessor's - government.

When he realised that time was up, Rody Molloy had at least the sensitivity to resign quickly, in order to avoid more damaging exposure. Brian Cowen seems to lack such sensitivity. Otherwise he would have stepped down already and made the way free for either a new government, or - which would be better - a general election.

The Emerald Islander

Serious Allegations against FÁS

An investigation into the expenditure of FÁS (Foras Áiseanna Saothair), Ireland's national training and employment authority, will be undertaken by the State's Comptroller & Auditor General, John Buckley.

(see also my yesterday's entries)

This official step has been taken reluctantly by the Tánaiste (and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment) Mary Coughlan (right), after speculations and serious allegations in the media created a demand for answers to two questions:

1) Why is FÁS getting so much money?
2) What are they doing with it all?

It has emerged that the annual budget of FÁS is more than one billion Euros, and it has steadily increased over the recent years of economic boom, growth and prosperity.

One wonders why the national training and employment authority was receiving and spending a lot more money during a time of very low unemployment, when they had really little to do, than during times of high unemployment.

The matter was first raised in Seanad Éireann by one man, independent Senator Shane Ross (left), who remained at first a lonely voice demanding clarity about the running and financial affairs of FÁS. None of the 59 other Senators seemed interested or offered support.
However, after Senator Ross went public - including an appearance on the popular Late Late Show (on RTÉ 1 television) last Friday evening - the media as well as several opposition politicians began to take up the matter as well.

Even though the Tanaiste declared that she has confidence in the leadership of FÁS, there are many serious questions about the operation of the agency. John Buckley will need some time to investigate, and it will be very interesting to read his report in due course.

The Emerald Islander

FÁS under Investigation

An investigation into the expenditure of FÁS, Ireland's national training and employment agency, over the past eight years is to be undertaken by John Buckley, the State's Comptroller & Auditor General. (see also my entry from earlier today)

A spokesperson for the Tánaiste (and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment) Mary Coughlan, who made the announcement, said the investigation was "in response to speculation and negative publicity about FÁS".

Asked if there was any reaction from his department, the spokesperson added that "the Minister has confidence in the leadership of FÁS and will wait for the outcome of the examination, before deciding whether or not any action is warranted".