[Article] Fraud, Kickbacks and corruption in CIE

[Mark Hennessy]

This will hardly shock folks here but CIE are squandering millions of our taxes in an uncountable way.

When the CIE books don't add up at the end of the year, what do they do?
a) Find out where the waste happened, sack those responsible and ensure it doesn't happen again?
b) Introduce car parking charges and put up the cost of tickets?


http://www.independent.ie/business/i...s-1910407.html

AN explosive top secret report on Iarnrod Eireann has found that kickbacks, squandering of millions of euro in taxpayers' money and collusion with contractors, and incompetence has been rife in the loss making semi-state company for several years, a Sunday Independent investigation can reveal.

[Mark Gleeson]

Those of us in the know, know how deep it goes and very senior people are going to find themselves in serious trouble.

We know all about the holiday cottage scam

[roamling]

is there any chance that CIE can be forced to make the "top secret explosive" report available to the public?

[Mark Gleeson]

If the report was made public several very senior staff in both CIE and IE could be in line for a P45 so they are of course going to cover themselves.

We have details on many parts but have to be very careful what we state in public. We are aware of more issues than those raised in yesterday article. There are issues to do with the management of internal employee insurance funds. The Portlaoise incident relates to wooden sleepers disappearing, not only is it fraud but also illegal to sell used railway sleepers due environmental reasons.

The issues are generally local level middle management who appear to have been able to operate under the radar of HQ. Though how HQ dealt with certain staff afterwards is curious.

[roamling]

maybe an Oireachtas hearing could apply pressure on senior staff within CIE and IE . At the end of the day its the taxpayer's money and the days of squandering and cover up are over.

[PLUMB LOCO]

Originally Posted by Mark Gleeson

Those of us in the know, know how deep it goes and very senior people are going to find themselves in serious trouble.

We know all about the holiday cottage scam

No - must have missed this - can you expand upon?

[Mark Gleeson]

If we gave details we could get sued by both CIE and the member of staff involved. Needless to say they know we know. We can't give the location, the cost or the nature of the works undertaken, we know all three. This incident was the trigger for the fraud squad to get called in.

This one incident could possibly have the biggest impact of all once the full details can be made public.

[essoII]

this is actually highly interesting...will be interesting to see what comes of this. If any allegations of corruption are confirmed I think a major restructuring at senior levels will be a certainty..

[Colm Moore]

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...256510110.html

Fraud at Iarnród Éireann costs €2.5m
TIM O'BRIEN

AN INTERNAL fraud at Iarnród Éireann has cost the company €2.5 million in materials and loss of EU grants, the company said yesterday.

The fraud involved the unauthorised sale of redundant sleepers from the company’s North Wall site and what Iarnród Éireann called “other plant procurement issuesâ€�. It was identified in reviews by the company, which said three staff had been dismissed and gardaÃ* informed.

The company said issues relating to the loss of sleepers, plant procurement and removal of soil had cost the company €900,000.

However, a further loss of €800,000 was suffered due to the non-eligibility of procurement activities for EU grants, while the procurement issues themselves had cost the company €780,000.

In a statement yesterday, the company said of €2.5 million, just €670,000 related to fraud within Iarnród Éireann.

“To place this in context, these areas collectively in the period reviewed . . . had expenditure on external vendors totalling approximately €800 million and the amounts of losses represent less than one-third of 1 per cent of the total external expenditure in these departments�.

Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd said the statement showed Iarnród Éireann should not be exempt from Freedom of Information requests. “CIÉ is an organisation that hoovers up over €300 million a year in taxpayers’ money to help run its loss-making services. This is in addition to the €1 billion-plus it has received to help purchase new infrastructure.

“I have consistently argued that there was absolutely no transparency on how this money was spent or accounted for.�

[Mark Gleeson]

and more

Originally Posted by Irish Examiner

Dempsey demands CIÉ fraud report
By Seán McCárthaigh
Tuesday, October 13, 2009

TRANSPORT Minister Noel Dempsey has demanded a full report from CIÉ over an internal company investigation which uncovered losses of €2.5 million due to alleged fraud and collusion.

Mr Dempsey confirmed yesterday he was unaware of the report by consultants – Baker, Tilly, Ryan, Glennon – before details of it were published in the Sunday Independent this week. Clearly annoyed at the failure of CIÉ to inform him about the report’s existence, Mr Dempsey said he had now sought a full explanation from the state transport company. The minister said he should have been informed about the report, which claimed losses of millions of euro of taxpayers money were incurred due to fraud and poor control procedures at CIÉ. Although it appeared CIÉ had detected the problems and subsequently acted to redress the situation, Mr Dempsey said no waste of taxpayers’ money could ever be condoned.

CIÉ spokesman Barry Kenny admitted yesterday the report had uncovered evidence of malpractice within Iarnród Éireann, which had resulted in three employees being fired.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Kenny insisted that losses of just €670,000 were suffered as a result of the unauthorised sale of railway sleepers from Iarnród Éireann’s North Wall depot in Dublin. However, he was forced to admit that the company had also suffered additional losses of €1.8m as a result of poor procedures and controls in its procurement policy.

CIÉ also acknowledged that a payment of €257,000 to an unsuccessful applicant for a tender to remove top soil from a site at North Wall in Dublin was the subject of a Garda investigation and other legal proceedings.

Mr Kenny said the losses should be viewed in the context of overall spending of €800m by CIÉ over the four-year period covered by the consultants’ report.

Meanwhile, Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd called on the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport to arrange an emergency meeting to discuss the allegations that millions of euro were squandered by CIÉ.

Mr O’Dowd said CIÉ chairman John Lynch and Iarnród Éireann chief executive Dick Fearn should appear before such a meeting to provide an explanation.

The Louth TD said the Freedom of Information Act needed to be expanded to allow quasi-commercial companies like CIÉ to be opened up to full and proper scrutiny.


Read more: http://www.examiner.ie/ireland/demps...#ixzz0TnklgHDZ

[drumcondra commuter]

"Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O’Dowd said the statement showed Iarnród Éireann should not be exempt from Freedom of Information requests."

Say what now? They are?!?!

[Mark Gleeson]

The CIE group is exempt from FOI, the RPA are not.

Despite this we have obtained large volumes of documents through FOI as CIE seems to send copies of most things to the Department of Transport which is where we file our requests

[dermo88]

I hinted at this a few years ago and it was unsubstantiated allegations by me back then. I did not have access to direct and definite proof, but there was too many - shall we say strange coincidences taking place. Then I was warned of the risks of Platform11 being sued. So I think, knowing the extent of Irish libel laws, its dangerous territory, but say with a mild grin, "I told you so". I'd happen to respect the libel laws here than any other website, where I will fire off on all cylinders.

Its merely stating what we all know, and certain Irish business persons involved with communications and a former transport minister have a reputation for suing people and organisations for the slightest infringements.

[Mark Gleeson]

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...t-1924027.html

The drip feeding continues. The Heuston contract is complicated since its not actually about Heuston alone, the contract was known as HACM, Heuston and Connolly Maynooth

http://wrsl.co.uk/Downloads/Heuston%20datasheet.pdf

[Mark Gleeson]

Its the three amigos John Lynch, Dick Fearn and Barry Kenny in the hot seat in Lenister House. They don't look happy at all

I don't think the 2 million is not a large amount of money excuse is going to work this time.

Shane Ross is also at the table with the Baker Tilly report which is a good inch and half thick, which will be fun as he knows more about this than anyone else outside the lucky few who have seen the reports

[roamling]

http://www.independent.ie/national-n...s-1925953.html

Independent,
Wednesday October 28 2009

POOR financial controls and fraud cost the state public transport company CIE almost €2.5m in four years.

CIE chairman Dr John Lynch -- who is a former FAS director general -- denied claims that the state transport company was "rife with backhanders, collusion and fraud" yesterday.

The Dail Transport Committee heard yesterday how fraud cost CIE €665,807.

Only €100,000 of this sum had been repaid -- and poor financial controls relating to procuring goods and services had cost the company another €1.8m.

A draft report from forensic accountants Baker Tilly suggested the losses could be as high as €8.7m -- but CIE ordered that the reference to this amount be removed from the final report because it was a "guesstimate" and could not be proved. The company ordered the accountants to only outline the losses that could be proved.

"Iarnrod Eireann is portrayed as rife with backhanders, collusion and fraud," Dr Lynch said. "Three people out of a staff of 11,300 hardly warrants headlines of backhanders. It is grossly untrue and unfair to workers.

"The European Commission this year has said that procedures are excellent and monitoring good. There is one credit card in CIE, and two credit cards in Irish Rail. The reason we took on Baker Tilly was to see if our systems were robust enough."

The committee was told that in 2005, an internal unit set up to establish where money could be saved became concerned about a number of issues at the company's North Wall site in Dublin.

Following investigations, gardai became involved and it emerged that employees had been selling disused railway equipment including railway sleepers.

Forensic

It also emerged that one employee was in collusion with a contractor, who had falsely billed the company for work not done. When these issues were addressed, the company began a review of its financial systems and also hired forensic accountants Baker Tilly Ryan Glennon in 2007. The firm was asked to investigate financial controls in the company and make recommendations on improving systems, and to look at the actual losses incurred.

The report cost €450,000 to compile, and while it did not identify further instances of fraud it identified losses of almost €2.5m because of weaknesses in the system.

It also made over 100 recommendations.

But independent senator Shane Ross said that the consultants had used a figure of €8.7m in a draft report when estimated historical losses were included.

"It's quite devastating, a litany of woes in Iarnrod Eireann," Mr Ross said. "I counted 19 times the word 'fraud'. It (the report) talks about malpractice which is endemic; this is a semi-state company which is completely out of control. It's quite obvious this has been going on for a long time."

Fine Gael transport spokesman Fergus O'Dowd said the Baker Tilly report showed the need for CIE's exemption from the Freedom of Information Act to be lifted.

- Paul Melia

Irish Independent

[Thomas Ralph]

There's an article on page 2 of the Metro about it as well.

[KSW]

The report cost €450,000 to compile, and while it did not identify further instances of fraud it identified losses of almost €2.5m because of weaknesses in the system.

That is crazy in its self, How much that report cost. Literally Four more times that report it would add the same amount to CIE's €2.5m

[Mark Gleeson]

Its a very big report, lots of black marker

[Mark Gleeson]

Finally name and shame begins

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...259108686.html

Seriously though how on earth was this guy not thrown in jail the first time. What is shocking is he is not the only member of staff taken back after a serious disiplinary case was proven. What do you have to do to get sacked