The GAA will have watched last night’s Prime Time on RTÉ with interest as the programme revealed details, without naming names, of alleged financial misdeeds involving a senior GAA county official.
The programme reported that they had seen documents making up an internal audit that had been conducted by the county in question.
These are alleged to show spending and payments amounting to €46,997 over a three year period. Two payments of €4,000 and €4,775 were made in a single two week period with “no basis or explanation for the payments.”
On a positive note, the fact that the investigation has already been completed shows that the national policy of all County financial statements being audited by an independent external auditor is working.
The GAA issued a statement to the programme which said that “Where difficulties relating to financial operations in a county have been brought to the attention of Croke Park, an independent review has been carried out.”
“Croke Park and the counties involved work together to implement the findings and recommendations of those reviews.”
In an almost wholly voluntary run organisation with the size and reach of the GAA, it is perhaps inevitable that there will be incidents and individuals where best practice is not adhered to.
The mark of an organisation is how it deals with that once it comes to its attention and how it works closely with all concerned to lessen the likelihood of it happening in the first place.
The programme obviously could not name any county or individual for legal reasons, one assumes.
The shame about it is that there are many now who will question not one but all county officials and cast a shadow over the work done by so many for a reward that may be good for the spirit and the soul but rarely results in a €270 restaurant bill that is paid ‘on expenses’.
