Council taking steps to prevent repeat of €500,000 fraud

By Eilis Ryan

Westmeath County Council said it has taken a range of steps to minimise the chances of getting scammed again by the sort of fraud that cost it €515,000 last year.

In February of last year it emerged that scammers had defrauded the local authority of €515,000. The council said last summer that its insurance firm had compensated it for most of the money taken as a result of the scam.

Director of Finance, Michael Hand, told the March meeting of the council that a number of procedures have been changed, especially within the Accounts Payable section, for which he is responsible.

He was responding to a query raised by Athlone councillor Paul Hogan who asked if measures had been put in place.

"We have been commended by both the local government auditor and the previous audit committee in relation to the steps taken, how the fraud was dealt with, and how we're quite sure it [won’t] happen again: nobody wants to be back in that space," Mr Hand told the meeting.

He explained that the council had provided a number of training courses last year to all staff, and we intends to revisit the subject again in April and May this year, for any new staff who have come on board, “because the responsibility lies with all the different sections of the council”.