The former director of corporate affairs at Fás, Greg Craig, who was at the centre of the spending scandals of two years ago, has brought a grievance complaint against the agency, which is being investigated at an estimated cost of €90,000.

At the same time, Fás has hired another consultant to conduct a 'counter'-investigation into the misconduct of around 12 senior managers in the agency, including Craig.

It is estimated that the Mazars consultancy firm's investigation of Craig's complaint will cost the state jobs agency up to €90,000 by the time it is finished.

The counter-investigation by Fás into Craig and others, which is being conducted by consultant Ignatius Lynam, is costing an estimated €1,000 a day and has been ongoing for a few months.

This will leave Fás and the taxpayer facing an estimated bill of well over €150,000 for two investigations.

A Fás source said that on top of demoralising staff, the investigations are preoccupying senior management at a time when it is needed most, with over 450,000 people on the live register. "Everybody has daggers drawn" said the source.

Many in Fás also believe that the agency will be broken up by the government next year and even the name Fás will be scrapped

"It is Fás practice to investigate all grievances or complaints that arise" the state jobs agency said last week, adding that it uses internal or external resources "depending on the circumstances of each case". It refused to comment any further.

Craig, currently health and safety director of Fás, claimed he was unfairly blamed for the spending scandals which eventually resulted in the resignation of the then Fás director, Rody Molloy and later the entire board.

Lack of proper procedures in spending on advertising and foreign trips to Florida by the corporate affairs department at Fás was unearthed in a series of audit reports in 2008.

It is understood that much of Craig's claim of unfair treatment by Fás rests in the way he discovered he had been suspended.

This happened when former Fás assistant director, and current GAA president, Christy Cooney, under pressure at a public accounts meeting into the scandals, stated publicly that Craig had been suspended and that a letter to that effect had been sent to his home address.

But it is understood that Craig, who was about to return from sick leave, did not receive the letter for two days and learnt of his suspension from media reports of Cooney's remarks.

Craig believes that being publicly associated with the scandals has limited his career in Fás and elsewhere.

The results of both investigations are expected shortly though it is understood there is some internal debate as to which can be released first.