MEATH COUNTY Council employees should be able to take the equivalent of up to a week’s wages in gifts or hospitality, a council internal document has stated.
The council’s draft anti-fraud and corruption policy document said there should be a “commonsense” approach in determining if the offer of a gift or hospitality constitutes a breach of ethics.
It set out guidelines which should be applied in “deciding if a gift may be inappropriate”, stating: “The value of any gift or hospitality should not exceed the value of one week’s pay (annual over 52) of the entry level of the employee’s grade.”
For example, it said, an employee on the equivalent of €52,000 a year “would have a limit of €1,000” in total either as one item or as several over the course of the year.
The document was rejected “out of hand” by the council’s own statutory audit committee and by senior management who are known to be unhappy that something which was for internal use only was made public.
The document was compiled by the council’s internal auditors for the committee. It will now have to go back to the committee in a substantially revised form.
The original recommendation would have allowed a county manager in a county the size of Meath to accept gifts or hospitality worth up to €2,950 a year based on a salary of €153,290. An assistant manager starting on €90,453 would have had a limit of €1,730.
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