Sipo carried out 10 tax compliance investigations on senior public sector officials in 2021

The State’s ethics watchdog conducted 10 investigations into the failure of senior appointees to public sector jobs to comply with rules on proving they are tax compliant during 2021.

The Standards in Public Office Commission’s (Sipo) annual report shows that there were seven investigations at the start of 2021 and three more approved over the course of the year.

The report does not say which public sector organisations were involved but it notes that eight individuals came into compliance during the year and two remain outstanding.

In 2020 five cases related to the appointment of people to jobs in the Health Service Executive (HSE), though Sipo did not name the individuals involved at the time nor did it give any indication of when they were appointed.

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Sipo said that during 2020 and 2021, due to the movement restrictions imposed because of Covid-19, some appointees faced difficulties in having a statutory declaration related to tax compliance witnessed within the statutory timelines.

The commission said its view is that there should be statutory obligation on public bodies to notify Sipo of senior appointments as when it is not informed of them it is not in a position to assist appointees on their obligations to comply with rules on tax compliance.

The annual report also outlines how Sipo processed 127 complaints under the Ethics Acts and initiated four preliminary inquiries. There were seven preliminary inquiries carried forward from 2020 completed in 2021.

Of these, two were closed and five proceeded to full investigations.

Two investigation hearings took place in November 2021, the subsequent reports of which were published in January.

In the report Sipo notes that 25 public bodies remain outside the remit of the Ethics Acts and these include the new technological universities established in recent years,

It says the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform has informed the commission that it has not commenced the process of updating the regulations, due to the Covid-19 emergency.

Sipo said it understands this process has not started and adds: “The commission is of the view that the process prescribing designated directorships and designated positions is not onerous, and should not be postponed indefinitely.”

The commission outlines 54 recommendations it has made over the last two decades and notes progress on implementing just five of them.

There was no progress on a recommendation made as far back as 2004 that the commission should be granted the power to appoint an inquiry officer to conduct a preliminary inquiry into a matter in the absence of a complaint under the Ethics Acts.

Nor was there progress on making provision for more offences under the Electoral Acts that set out the rules for the funding of election campaigns.

Sipo notes the Government’s Electoral Reform Bill, which includes plans for the setting up of an Electoral Commission and regulating online political advertising, was progress related to three of its recommendations.