Primetime on FAS in Castlebar

quad_red

Good God. It gets worse.

Do people have any shame? Gorging themselves on money as the real providers struggled to provide meals on wheels services.

Really disheartening. And multiply this by one hundred nationwide

murfie

Explain please, i will watch it online later when they put it on the site. But is it more spending wastage in FAS, in my home town!! Shocking

quad_red

murfie wrote: »

Explain please, i will watch it online later when they put it on the site. But is it more spending wastage in FAS, in my home town!! Shocking

FAS providing enormous amounts of funding (hundreds of thousands of euro) to companies to provide meals on wheels and other services to the community.

When, in reality, they were doing absolutely nothing and the actual volunteers struggled with limited funding to actually provide these services. The head of the actual meals on wheels service (a retired Garda) tried to bring this to the authorities in a number of different ways. He claims the local priest, who was involved in these companies, told him to stop asking questions.

Basically, scamming FAS by drawing down hundreds of thousands of euro claiming to provide services that others were struggling to provide.

Shameful.

And FAS doing nothing to control not only the quality of services it was paying for but whether the services it was paying for were actually being provided AT ALL.

Soldie

FÁS were funding 'Meals on Wheels' to the tune of €2.3 million and much of the money was siphoned off to line the pockets of corrupt officials, instead of serving its intended purpose.

Nothing surprising really. Just another example of public money being pissed away to add to the list.

I can't help but think how it came to be that funding was even allocated in the first place.

yop

Oh sweet God, what fukin next.

Are we the new Russia, corrupt to the hilt

Kristopherus

We don't know what happened to the money. Just be aware that the main man through all of this was a senior Fas official in the town up to his retirement. The other main character was the local Parish Priest and he is dead.

juuge

murfie wrote: »

Explain please, i will watch it online later when they put it on the site. But is it more spending wastage in FAS, in my home town!! Shocking

Isn't that where beverly flynn is from? Why should anyone be surprised what goes on there?

cooperguy

At one stage the guy doing the scaming justified it by saying that the company was actually called Meals on Wheels and they were'nt necessarily providing a meals on wheels service. This sort of shit is really starting to piss me off.

Hopefully at the end of this recession the banks etc. will be regulated extremely heavily and there will be severe punishment for this kind of fraud. People seem to be getting away scot free :mad:

quad_red

There's a sense that allot of stuff is coming out in the wash now, isn't there?

NewDubliner

cooperguy wrote: »

Hopefully at the end of this recession the banks etc. will be regulated extremely heavily

By public servants...? I thought they were going to be culled & the remainder were having pay and pension cuts?

cooperguy

quad_red wrote: »

There's a sense that allot of stuff is coming out in the wash now, isn't there?

Ya there's nothing like a recession to bring out all the scams when the money dries up and there is nothing to cover up what is going on. My favourite story is still of the Wall Street investor who was one of the most respected investment bankers on wall street (and therefore probably the world?) and it turned out he was just running a massive pyramid scheme where the new money was used to pay dividends to the older investors. Some of the biggest companies and celebrities lost out in that!

What id like to know though is did the other major recessions in the past uncover this amount of corruption?

murfie

juuge wrote: »

Isn't that where beverly flynn is from? Why should anyone be surprised what goes on there?

True and its a disgrace to the town and county she is there also. She gets in on the back of her fathers name is all.

But man just watched that, unreal. How do the upper people in FAS let the people in the organisation get away with this. They all have their fingers in the pie!

Dannyboy83

I saw it myself.

What can we do about it?

TBH, I need to stop reading the papers for a bit, my blood pressure is starting to get high.

I'll never vote for Fianna Fail ever again so long as I live.

eoinbn

Wait: there was someone out there that doesn't know what a gravetrain FAS is?

It might of been more useful if this was done before all the damage was done.

P. Breathnach

Kristopherus wrote: »

... Just be aware that the main man through all of this was a senior Fas official in the town up to his retirement...

Are you sure that he was a senior FAS official? I saw the programme, and I didn't notice him as being identified as such. CE schemes are run by a management committee based in the community, and FAS provide funding to pay for a full-time administrator (locally recruited) to serve the management committee and oversee the scheme on a day-to-day basis. I presumed the individual in the programme had such a position, but I don't think that was made clear, either.

Soldie

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Are you sure that he was a senior FAS official? I saw the programme, and I didn't notice him as being identified as such. CE schemes are run by a management committee based in the community, and FAS provide funding to pay for a full-time administrator (locally recruited) to serve the management committee and oversee the scheme on a day-to-day basis. I presumed the individual in the programme had such a position, but I don't think that was made clear, either.

Unless I'm mistaken he was identified as being a former senior FÁS official (having been at FÁS for 15 ish years).

nesf

P. Breathnach wrote: »

CE schemes are run by a management committee based in the community, and FAS provide funding to pay for a full-time administrator (locally recruited) to serve the management committee and oversee the scheme on a day-to-day basis.

So, so long as this administrator reports things as going well no-one in FAS would know that funds were misappropriated?

nesf

Just watched it there. Brass neck and a half. I don't think your man was a senior official though, he worked there for 18 years.

K-9

nesf wrote: »

Just watched it there. Brass neck and a half. I don't think your man was a senior official though, he worked there for 18 years.

Ah yeah, he was only a worker, no responsibility!

But YEP, The regulation was crap.

Whistleblowing seems to be actively discouraged in Ireland.

P. Breathnach

nesf wrote: »

So, so long as this administrator reports things as going well no-one in FAS would know that funds were misappropriated?

Initially, a clarification: the job title is supervisor (I'm dragging this stuff from the depths of my memory).

The supervisor works with and for with a community committee and is also subject to some degree of oversight from FAS. The local committee might be very interested and able, or it might not. That's the way things are with voluntary groups. So the oversight from FAS should be regarded as important.

Because the CE scheme works at a distance form FAS (organisationally and often geographically) I would guess that it is sometimes easy for control to be lost.

JonathanAnon

As was said already, why would anyone expect any better from a town that votes in Beverly Flynn. Just wish that RTE had had the balls to bankrupt her, no matter what it cost.

I thought that the report was a bit unsure of actually proving what it said. Though the guys on the thing did luck shifty. Why do none of these people ever get prosecuted for fraud and go to jail.

I am beginning to dislike this country more and more every day. I think Bertie's assertion that it's a "great little country", must have been on the basis of what he was getting from it.

skelliser

to clarify your man's title was supervisor but this position was voluntary, he didnt get paid.

No actual allegations or proof of wrong doing were but forward by primetime just insinuated.

quad_red

skelliser wrote: »

to clarify your man's title was supervisor but this position was voluntary, he didnt get paid.

No actual allegations or proof of wrong doing were but forward by primetime just insinuated.

Yeah, the same ambiguous stink that permeates the banking situation.

It's blatantly obvious there are serious problems here. But will anyone really pay?

dreenman

JonathanAnon wrote: »

As was said already, why would anyone expect any better from a town that votes in Beverly Flynn. Just wish that RTE had had the balls to bankrupt her, no matter what it cost.

I thought that the report was a bit unsure of actually proving what it said. Though the guys on the thing did luck shifty. Why do none of these people ever get prosecuted for fraud and go to jail.

I am beginning to dislike this country more and more every day. I think Bertie's assertion that it's a "great little country", must have been on the basis of what he was getting from it.

I totally agree with everything said about the Flynn stones , Bertie and the whole corrupt system. And the increasingly thick layer of scum floating to the surface in this country.

However I have heard that Prime Time may have overstepped the mark with last nights show. While the three stooges (well one buffoon and two stooges) were both scary and comical in equal measure - god forbid they were put in charge of anything - there wasn't actually any proof or even charge from RTE that these giys had pocketed the millions - I think the 'fat man' had taken one payment of 300 euro for something in 2002.

From what I understand from "sources close to Castlebar" the FAS contributions mentioned were really used to pay employees on work placement and used not only to support Meals on Wheels but a range of other community projects - the D'unbelievable jokers paraded last night should never have been let out in public to explain anything. Prime Time must have been rubbing their hands with glee when they first saw them.

But just to add to the mix.... the 'local spat' fleetingly referred to was, in typical Castlebar style, more than just a spat - the Whistleblower had his own very personal reasons to make trouble for FAS and has been trying to do that for a number of years. The real story has to do him and the dead priest!

... Come to think of it perhaps it was just a trailer for the new series of Kilnascully could be the funniest yet.

skelliser

yes the above post is alot closer to the actual facts, the funding from fas was used to pay the wages of people who worked on the various schemes which came under the remit of "meals on wheels".

From my understanding a disliking between the ex-garda and the other fella is the main reason behind this.

quad_red

dreenman wrote: »

From what I understand from "sources close to Castlebar" the FAS contributions mentioned were really used to pay employees on work placement and used not only to support Meals on Wheels but a range of other community projects - the D'unbelievable jokers paraded last night should never have been let out in public to explain anything. Prime Time must have been rubbing their hands with glee when they first saw them.

To be fair, the programme didn't accuse them of pocketing the money. It was a round house exposure of the complete lack of any financial oversight in that f**king money vampire that is FAS.

dreenman wrote: »

But just to add to the mix.... the 'local spat' fleetingly referred to was, in typical Castlebar style, more than just a spat - the Whistleblower had his own very personal reasons to make trouble for FAS and has been trying to do that for a number of years. The real story has to do him and the dead priest!

And if a group of buffoons were hoovering all the funding up in it's name whilst the actual meals of wheels service was struggling, then the whistleblower having a gripe is hardly incomprehensible.

P. Breathnach

skelliser wrote: »

to clarify your man's title was supervisor but this position was voluntary, he didnt get paid.

CE Supervisor is a paid position. While it is paid by FAS, I think that FAS do not regard the supervisors as part of their core establishment.

No actual allegations or proof of wrong doing were but forward by primetime just insinuated.

It was pretty strong insinuation, and some proof was adduced (e.g evidence that people were paid providing training when they were ineligible to receive such payment).

skelliser

P. Breathnach wrote: »

CE

It was pretty strong insinuation, and some proof was adduced (e.g evidence that people were paid providing training when they were ineligible to receive such payment).

Primetime failed to show us the break down of what the money was spent on, i.e. the vast majority went on wages.

Either way the damage is done.

At no point did primetime accuse anyone of wrong doing, why? because allegations of fraud are serious and need to be backed up for any future possible criminal prosecution, they made no allegation cause they had very little just insinuations which in this case was enough for their means.
I enjoy primetime but last nights report was pretty poor by there standards.

dreenman

quad_red wrote: »

To be fair, the programme didn't accuse them of pocketing the money. It was a round house exposure of the complete lack of any financial oversight in that f**king money vampire that is FAS.



And if a group of buffoons were hoovering all the funding up in it's name whilst the actual meals of wheels service was struggling, then the whistleblower having a gripe is hardly incomprehensible.

I think that is one of the points that wasnt explored or proved - were they struggling? Something was said about them not being able to buy a Chrsitmas tree but thats an old emotive PR trick.

I agree with the point about FAS being a money vampire - my point is that it was intimated that millions was misappropriated by these 3 guys with nothin said about what that money actually was used for. TV news editing can spin any angle on any story remember.

jmayo

P. Breathnach wrote: »

Initially, a clarification: the job title is supervisor (I'm dragging this stuff from the depths of my memory).

The supervisor works with and for with a community committee and is also subject to some degree of oversight from FAS. The local committee might be very interested and able, or it might not. That's the way things are with voluntary groups. So the oversight from FAS should be regarded as important.

Because the CE scheme works at a distance form FAS (organisationally and often geographically) I would guess that it is sometimes easy for control to be lost.

It looks like there was no supoervision or oversight :rolleyes:

P. Breathnach wrote: »

CE Supervisor is a paid position. While it is paid by FAS, I think that FAS do not regard the supervisors as part of their core establishment.

It was pretty strong insinuation, and some proof was adduced (e.g evidence that people were paid providing training when they were ineligible to receive such payment).

So Fás pays people but they are not part of core establishment, so they have almost total indpendence ?

Ok if in this case they diverted the funds to some other projects, did not steal or pocket it, weren't they still not dishonest by not using the funds for what they were earmarked for and thus screwing the chances some other legimitate "meals on wheels" provider had of getting funding ?

Is this the thin end of the wedge and if you can divert funds to some other project in one instance, what is stopping someone else from diverting the funds into their own pockets or buddies poickets in another location ?

It just goes to show how badly managed the whole Fás organisation is.

yoshytoshy

Theres always been a few chancers working in fas ,but the majority of people in there are good.And the lads they train are hard working.

Remember hearing a story of a guy ordering in supplies for classes and using the goods to do his own jobs. But he was found out and got the boot as far as I know.