Allegations of fraud made against sacked Limerick council employee under garda investigation
LIMERICK City and County Council has declined to comment further on fraud allegations made against a former employee who is the subject of a ongoing garda investigation.
In October 2020, the Limerick Leader revealed that the employee had been dismissed and last night the further details of the alleged €1.8m fraud featured in an RTÉ Investigates broadcast.
While members of the local authority were informed, by email, that the employee had been dismissed following a "detailed investigation process" no other information was disclosed publicly at the time.
According to the RTÉ Investigates programme, which was presented by reporter Conor Ryan, the former employee authorised works to be undertaken on behalf of the council and later for Irish Water under a Service Level Agreement between the two organisations.
Some of the allegations, now under garda investigation, relate to payments of €860,000, which were made by the council, to a small Limerick-based service company over a five-year period between 2012 and 2016.
While Limerick City and County Council did not release certain documents and records to RTÉ, the national broadcaster says it has identified alleged patterns "whereby a sizeable number of relatively small-value purchases were made on the same day for works that were, most often, described as minor."
Records released by Irish Water to RTÉ Investigates show the same individual, who cannot be named for legal reasons, authorised payments of €984,000 to be paid by the utility to the same Limerick-based company.
When contacted by the Limerick Leader following the RTÉ Investigates broadcast, a spokesperson for the local authority said: “Limerick City and County Council had referred this incident to the gardaí following its own internal investigation and is co-operating fully with the investigation currently being undertaken by An Garda Síochána. The Council will not be commenting further.”
A spokesperson for Irish Water stated: "Irish Water is currently liaising with An Garda Síochána in respect of this matter and is therefore not in a position to comment."
Allegations of fraud and other questionable practices at several councils across the country also featured in Wednesday's RTÉ Investigates programme.