Fas chiefs are to be quizzed about a controversial €140m scheme under which employer and trade union organisations secured training contracts from the agency while being represented on its board.

The Dail’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is planning to quiz Fas officials about the Competency Development Programme (CDP), amid concerns there may have been some conflicts of interest during its operation.

The CDP paid unions and business groups such as Ibec, Chambers Ireland and the Small Firms Association, to provide training courses for their employees. Some courses cost up to €4m.

The “up-skilling” contracts were awarded while some of these business bodies and unions had representatives on the Fas board. Even though the state training agency claims that board members stepped out of meetings when there was a potential conflict of interest, the PAC wants to investigate the matter further.

The CDP scheme, which used social funds provided by the EU, has been the subject of an investigation by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, but its report has not yet been published. The Comptroller and Auditor General, the state’s financial watchdog, is also examining the scheme. Fas is also being audited by the EU in what the agency said was a “routine process”.

In 2008, following a tender process, €10m was awarded to business bodies for training under the programme. The recipients included Chambers Ireland which received €4m, the Irish Management Institute (€2.3m) and the Small Firms Association (€1.2m). The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (Ictu) was paid €3.8m for providing training while the Services, Industrial, Professional and Technical Union (Siptu) was paid €2m.

The two-year Ictu scheme involved the appointment of 480 “leading advocates” to act as “peer catalysts for fellow workers to engage in learning”.

Siptu’s scheme was to appoint three training co-ordinators with responsibility for training 50 union representatives (ULRs). The ULRs were to organise training for workers.

In 2007, €42m was spent on the CDP. The scheme, which started in 2003, was expanded in 2004 after the Department of Enterprise asked the agency to come up with ideas for €60m of unspent EU funds.

Fas officials will appear before the PAC on November 26.

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