This article is from page 15 of the 2008-04-22 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 15 JPG
THE overpayment of road work- ers over a six-year period by Clare County Council was missed both by internal and external auditors be- fore eventually being discovered at central Government level, it was re- vealed yesterday.
Speaking at last night’s meeting of Clare County Council, the Mayor of Clare, Patricia McCarthy (Ind), stat- ed her disappointment that the error was not picked up earlier, at local au- thority level.
The overpayment amounted to more than €500,000 over six years, and Deputy County Manager, Tom Coughlan, also confirmed last night that the local authority would not be seeking to recoup the money.
“Tt is disappointing that neither the internal or the external audit system picked up on this error,’ Mayor of Clare, Patricia McCarthy said.
“It was in the human resources sec- tion of the department that this error was found and that is something that is regrettable.”
Deputy County Manager, Tom Coughlan, confirmed last night that because of the amount of workers involved and the length of time, the local authority would not be seeking to recoup the money.
‘This was an error in the methodol- ogy and that is why it was not picked up quickly and was compounded over the years,” he said.
“It should not have happened but
when it was discovered, the council moved once it found out to resolve the situation. If it had been a once- off discrepancy, it is policy of Clare County Council to recoup the mon- OV ‘Because this situation was ongo- ing and involved a large number of people it was decided not to try and recoup the money.”
Councillors Martin Conway (FG) and PJ Kelly (FF) have recently been appointed as public representatives on the council’s external audit com- mittee and have given a commitment to reporting on the workings of the committee to the general council.
“I’m glad that there is not going to be an attempt made to recoup this money. The road workers in this county are a very hard-working and committed bunch,” said Cllr Con- WENA
“We have had two meetings with the audit committee and we’re not satisfied with the reporting proc- ess. We will put together a charter of what is going on at that meeting, and we suggested that this charter be presented to the regular meeting for consideration by the general mem- bers of Clare County Council.”
Independent councillor Gerry Flynn raised fears over whether a precedent of not recouping errors had been put in place while Cllr Christy Curtin (Ind) called for the local authority to send out a message that the finances of Clare County Council are in good hands.