The largest employer of people with disabilities in the country, Rehab, has confirmed that an alleged instance of fraud is under investigation at one of its subsidiaries.
A note attached to Rehab's 2018 annual accounts states that the company concluded a preliminary investigation in 2019, which identified an alleged instance of fraud at one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries.
The note states: "The matter has now been disclosed to the relevant authorities."
A spokeswoman for the organisation said that the alleged fraud came to its attention as a result of a protected disclosure made at a subsidiary.
"As the matter is subject to an investigation at this time, no further comment can be made," she said.
The cash-strapped organisation last year received a Government bailout in order to deal with escalating costs across a number of areas.
The accounts show that the bailout occurred after Rehab recorded a loss of €2.79m in 2018.
The Rehab spokeswoman said that €1.5m has already been received from Government and they anticipated "receiving a final €500,000 imminently".
The spokeswoman also confirmed that the rebranding of Rehab has been paused due to the organisation’s financial circumstances.
In 2018, Rebab awarded a €30,000 to €40,000 contract for rebranding to be carried out, as the group’s name "is no longer fit for purpose".
The renaming of the organisation was to draw a line under the fall out from the controversy that the company was mired in in 2014. That culminated in the resignation of its then chief executive, Angela Kerins, and a new board being appointed five months later.
The Rehab spokeswoman stated the rebranding project is now at an advanced stage with much of the project work completed.
However, she said it was "deemed prudent to put the project on hold whilst we worked to restore the financial sustainability of the organisation.
"The Board of Rehab will decide in due course when this project will recommence."
The accounts show that six of Rehab’s former top earners shared €720,491 in redundancy in 2018.
The redundancy payments resulted in the pay of one individual in the bracket of €230,000 to €240,000, with two earning between €190,000 to €200,000 in 2018.
A note attached to the accounts states that the annual savings to Rehab from the redundancies total €489,000.
Without the redundancy payments included, the numbers earning over €100,000 at Rehab in 2018 total 10, with the highest earner in the €140,000 to €150,000 bracket.
CEO Mo Flynn received a salary of €140,000. Three other staff members receive remuneration between €130,000 and €140,000; three between €110,000 and €120,000 and three between €100,000 and €110,000.
The spokeswoman for Rehab stated that, since 2014, Rehab Group has introduced a range of cost reduction measures "in line with our Board of Directors’ mission to transform the organisation".
"This involved very significant pay cuts for continuing Senior Leadership Team (SLT) members, which saw an average base salary reduction of almost 20% and termination of any bonus arrangements," she said.
The spokeswoman stated that the salary cuts at management level is in addition to the cost reducing, avoidance and revenue generating measures that the group have taken "including the sale of our property at Sandymount, the closure of loss-making business lines, restructuring of Head Office roles, non-investment in technology, closure of the Group Defined Benefit pension scheme, reduction in the use of agency staff within the organisation, as well as savings made in procurement and expenses".
The accounts show that in 2018, Rehab’s total income came to €140.7m that included a grant from the HSE of €73.8m and the organisation’s total expenditure came to €143.6m.
At the end of 2018, Rehab employed 3,069 and staff costs came to €96.8m.
