Kerry County Council's machinery yard hired a machine at a cost of €1,600 per week for over two years without a lease agreement in place.
This is according to an audit conducted on the local authority's machinery yard.
The auditor said there were issues relating to the hire of a specialist road patching unit.
The audit on the machinery yard, which was undertaken in late 2019, said that the yard and associated costs had been raised at council meetings in the past.
The auditor noted a number of areas of concern, including issues around the weekly hire of a patching unit: in November 2019, when the audit was conducted, it was noted the machine had been on weekly hire at a rate of €1,600 per week since 2017.
This was pending the acquisition of a new machine.
The auditor noted there was no formal lease/hire agreement in place, nor was documentary evidence of formal approval of the lease provided.
In response, the council said a previous email showed the need to hire the machine on a trial basis for a period of eight months, while it added the continued use of the unit was necessary to provide road maintenance.
The council noted the failure to enter into a formal lease agreement and said procedures are being updated to address the issues.
It has since said that the hire period ended in August 2019, when it took delivery of two new patchers at a total cost of over €616,000.
