Probe into irregular payments of €500k to child care group

Gardaí and the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) are investigating irregular payments totalling €500,000 to a childcare group by the State, the Public Accounts Committee has been told.

Correspondence to the committee from Pobal, the Government’s communities agency, reveals that the matter was referred to the gardaí in February of this year and investigations are ongoing.

The documents, seen by the Irish Examiner, show that alarm was raised over payments to the West Clare Early Years Care and Education Services Ltd (WCEY) as far back as 2014.

The Department of Children received a letter from WCEY in regard to “suspected financial irregularities” in their company claims for payments for child care services.

“The suspected irregularities related to over claiming by the group, which was an umbrella group covering seven childcare centres,” the Pobal document states.

Pobal initiated an audit in February 2015 but encountered a “range of barriers including in regard to access and reliability of records which delayed its completion”.

Due to incomplete records, a lack of integrity over the records it was not possible to accurately quantify the extent of the overclaim.

The audit found that dual attendance records were kept and confirmed that the childcare organisation submitted “inaccurate returns in respect of children who may not have attended”.

Suspected irregular payments totalling €500,000 were reported to the gardaí and the ODCE on February 11, 2016.

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