Scandal topples FAS board
Senior managers at state training agency Fas were last night under pressure to follow the board of directors in resigning over the overspending scandal.
The 17-member board is preparing to stand down en masse, after an investigation revealed millions of euro in taxpayers' money was wasted, chairman Peter McLoone revealed.
But Fine Gael's employment spokesman Leo Varadkar insisted top bosses to blame for out-of-control budgets, uncovered last week by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), must also be forced to resign.
"Senior executives in Fas's corporate affairs division who were directly responsible for the type of reckless spending that the C&AG has criticised should also be held accountable for their actions," he said.
Mr McLoone signalled the board of directors will meet shortly and formally announce they are standing down.
Tanaiste Mary Coughlan, who has the power to sack the bosses but refused to do so, has already said she would accept their resignations if offered.
Mr McLoone, who is also the general secretary of trade union Impact, said there was no instruction from the Government for the 17 directors to resign.
Insisting they remained fit to serve, the chairman said they were doing so because they did not want the misspending scandal to detract from the work of Fas.
Speaking on RTE radio, Mr McLoone said the current board had strengthened oversight at the agency and introduced practices to prevent a repeat of what had happened before.
A report by public spending watchdog, the C&AG, revealed millions of euro were overspent by Fas bosses on advertising and promotions between 2002 and 2008.
Environment Minister John Gormley led calls for the board to resign over the revelations.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said, on Friday, legislation would be published in the coming weeks to overhaul Fas, including its board.
Appointed in January 2006, the present board was scheduled to run until December 2010. Mr Varadkar said their resignations should not be the end of a clearout at the top of the agency.
Labour's Roisin Shortall said the Fas board resignations were long overdue. "The vast majority of its staff are hardworking people who did not benefit from the regime of lavish expenses.
"It now needs to be reorganised, restructured and re-energised."
