A member of the FÁS board has said the approval of some expenses at the State training agency was fundamentally wrong.
Niall Saul told the Public Accounts Committee that a root and branch investigation was required.
Mr Saul explained the auditing functions to the Dáil committee.
He said that following last night's board meeting, it was clear that there was a failure of control and oversight of expenditure.
Mr Saul was the only current member of the FÁS board at today's hearing.
Former FÁS chief Rody Molloy is not appearing before the PAC as it examines the agency's affairs.
The PAC also heard from civil servants from the Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment and the Department of Finance.
Mr Molloy resigned earlier this week amid concerns about controls of executive expenses at the State training and employment agency.
Fine Gael Deputy Jim O'Keeffe has told the PAC that he has established that State travel policy did not include an entitlement to first class travel.
Deputy O'Keeffe was questioning the FÁS board member, Christy Cooney about the organisation's travel policy.
FÁS has located credit receipts for the €32,000 worth of flights to Florida, which the organisation earlier told the Committee it had failed to get refunds for. It said the credit notes were incorrectly coded due to an administrative error.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the board of FÁS now needs to get back to work and appoint an interim Director General following the resignation of Mr Molloy.
Mr Cowen has said it is important the board of FÁS continues to operate. He said instability should not be re-created and a sustainable and credible way forward needs to be found.
Earlier, PAC Chairman Bernard Allen said he finds it incredible that members of FÁS can 'just ride into the sunset' without holding themselves accountable.
Mr Allen said it was regrettable that Mr Molloy was not in attendance today but he said other members of FÁS would be able to address issues as they were also in FÁS during the time being examined.
Mr Allen said he was inviting Mr Molloy to come before the committee next week and he also formally invited FÁS Chairman Peter McLoone.
Harney denies $410 bill claim
One of the expenses was for $410 spent at a Florida beauty parlour, which was said to relate to when Mary Harney was in the Department of Health.
Last night, her office said she might have been responsible for part of a bill incurred when she led a FÁS delegation to Florida as Enterprise, Trade & Employment Minister.
But her spokesman vigorously denied that what had amounted to a wash and blow-dry could have accounted for the entire bill.
It was also being suggested that others on the delegation could have contributed to the controversial bill.
The Taoiseach has said he accepts the explanation given by Minister Harney about the hair dressing treatments.
Mr Cowen added he did not agree with opposition calls for the Minister stand down.
Speaking on RTÉ Radio One's Morning Ireland, Independent Senator and Business Editor of the Sunday Independent Shane Ross said that the invoice relating to a bill for $410 in a beauty salon in Florida relates to a bill from 2004.
He said that there was a misprint by a year in the newspaper article on Sunday, which stated that the bill was from 2005.
The original receipt, which he has since checked shows that it was from 2004.
He went on to say that the amount of $410 is correct, but that it was unclear how many people were responsible for the bill.
The board of FÁS met last night to consider the circumstances that led to Mr Molloy's resignation and how the organisation should best move forward.
In a statement, the board said it was gravely concerned about these matters, but that in deference to the PAC hearing, it would not be making a detailed statement at this point.
