A Waterford Council employee embarked upon a three-day spending spree with a local authority credit card - spending in the region of €700.
RTE Investigates aired a programme last night, Monday entitled 'Council Chamber Secrets' where secrets of local authorities nationwide were revealed.
According to RTE, the employee made an attempt to withdraw €3,200 in cash from ATMs, while also trying to make a €100 purchase with Paddy Power, and a €360 purchase in Argos. The credit card was declined. This occurred in August of 2019.
The employee was successful in making purchases in a number of restaurants, hotels and shops which amounted to roughly €700.
When the matter came to the attention of Waterford Council, the employee was issued with a written warning.
Council management did not make any complaint to Gardai, and also failed to inform the audit committee about the matter.
The Local Government Auditor's 2019 audit report of Waterford City & County Council highlighted that over 140 credit cards were used to make in excess of €1.6m worth of purchases that year.
It also referred to "a number of significant weaknesses in the usage, supervisory oversights and controls exercised over the cards."
Records show that the credit card was left in a council vehicle by one employee and was later taken by another employee without prior approval.
That employee then used it for personal gain over a period of three days.
When the other employee noticed that the credit card in question was missing, he reported it to his supervisor.
Soon after the spending on the credit card was noticed, an investigation was initiated in September 2019, while the employee paid the money back at the end of that month.
RTE reports that the auditor was unhappy with Waterford Council's assistance under the audit process.
In an email sent to a council official in June 2020, the auditor stated that he was "hugely disappointed that you did not bring the inappropriate use" of the credit card to "my specific attention".
RTÉ Investigates asked the council why they had not referred the matter to Gardaí and if the written warning letter issued to the employee was the only sanction used.
In a statement, the local authority responded:
"Waterford City and County Council does not comment on such matters as they relate to individual staff members. Waterford Council takes most seriously any issues of fraud or theft, which ordinarily would lead to significant sanction by way of dismissal or suspension from work without pay. Equally, we would always apply our policies of formal investigation and reporting in any such occurrence, seek recovery of any losses and where appropriate refer matters to An Garda Siochana. Any such actions have to be weighed between our different statutory responsibilities and the duty of care to our employees. The Chief Executive is satisfied that procedure was followed in exemplary fashion subsequent to the event outlined in the auditor’s report."
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