The Department of Enterprise, Trade & Employment was strongly criticised by the Public Accounts Committee today for taking five years to complete a 'value for money' report into a FÁS training programme.
The Comptroller and Auditor General's report also criticised FÁS's administration of the programme.
The Competency Development Programme (CDP) involved an expenditure of €126m between 2003 and 2008 and was aimed at up-skilling workers already in employment.
The programme was carried out by FÁS, but was funded by the Department - although it is expected that about €56m will be refunded by the European Social Fund.
The Secretary General of the Department, Seán Gorman, accepted that it looked bad that it had taken so long to complete a report that he himself had ordered.
The Committee heard that a former principal officer in the Department, a Mr Pat Hayden, had resigned in protest at the length of time it was taking to complete the report.
Labour's Roisin Shortall said it was surprising that a principal officer expressed serious reservations but the Secretary General apparently did nothing to address that officer's concerns.
In reply to Committee Chairman Bernard Allen, Mr Gorman denied that there was any effort to bury the report, or to cover or suppress anything.
The C&AG report also found that there had been gaps in the monitoring of the training delivered by external training providers.
Around half of the courses reviewed had not received a monitoring visit.
There were also difficulties in assessing the results of the training, as FÁS had not collected all the necessary information.
In particular, the extent to which participants achieved certification was not recorded.
In four years of rapid expansion, training was provided to more than 100,000 participants.
The aim of the programme was to up-skill workers who already had jobs, to give them portable skills, during a period of full employment.
