By Michael O’Farrell
Investigations Editor
AN executive with a €200m social housing charity in receipt of millions in State funding has resigned after the Irish Mail on Sunday last week revealed a forgery scandal at the troubled agency.
The MoS investigation showed the charity used forged cheques and set up a bank account with a forged signature of a former chairman.
The investigation separately showed that Declan Hudson (pictured above), who was chairman of Cooperative Housing Ireland for 13 years, routinely signed entire blank cheque-books in advance without knowing what they would be used for – a practice that eliminated crucial corporate governance control. There is no suggestion that Mr Hudson, who resigned this week, was personally involved in any forgery or that any charitable funds were misappropriated.
Meanwhile, a complaint has been formally lodged with the Garda fraud squad and the Government’s new interim regulator for approved housing bodies has engaged with the charity about issues discovered by the MoS.
Cooperative Housing Ireland – formerly known as the National Association of Building Cooperatives (Nabco) – builds and runs cooperative housing units around the country and is paid by the taxpayer to provide and manage affordable rent-based social housing for those in need.
In 2014, it was in receipt of assistance worth €144m from local authorities and the Housing Finance Agency.
Mr Hudson was its chairman, in a voluntary capacity, from 2001 until 2014 when he became vice chairman. However, during his term, the charity used the faked signature of Ed Penrose – a previous chairman who left the organisation – to process millions in payments between 2000 and 2004.
A new bank account was also opened in 2004 using the forged signature of Mr Penrose. After 2004 – and until 2009 – the use of forged signatures was replaced by a system in which Mr Hudson signed cheques in advance.
When asked about this last week Mr Hudson refused to comment. The other signatory to the charity’s cheques during this period was founder and CEO Bernard Thompson, who retired in 2010 after 40 years.
He told the MoS last week he had no recollection of forging the signature of Ed Penrose but that he was prepared to admit doing so if it would help Nabco. He said he was certain all funds during his tenure were properly accounted for.
Under the Criminal Justice Act 2001 the use of a false instrument with the intention of inducing another person to accept it as genuine can be deemed a criminal offence depending on the motivation and financial consequences.
A spokesman for Housing Minister Jan O’Sullivan said last night it would be inappropriate to comment since it ‘is a matter for the interim regulator to focus on individual approved housing bodies’.
A spokesman for the interim regulator, the Housing Agency, said: ‘The regulation office is in a process of engagement with Cooperative Housing Ireland on this matter.’
Nama, which entered into a number of joint social housing projects with the charity recently said it works with approved housing bodies ‘on the basis of the Housing Agency’s imprimatur’.
Barry O’Leary, Housing Finance Agency CEO, said: ‘Strong corporate governance is a vital component of our assessment and monitoring of the creditworthiness of approved housing bodies.’ Cooperative Housing Ireland said it has ‘undertaken a systematic reform of its governance arrangements and procedures’.
