Chair of board apologises for major ‘lapse in oversight’
THE chair of the board of RTÉ has apologised for a ‘significant lapse in oversight’ over Toy Show The Musical and committed to changes in governance so that it would not happen again.
Siún Ní Raghallaigh, who described the incident as a ‘debacle’, said that information was withheld from the RTÉ board about the musical and that RTÉ executives should have been interrogated by board members ‘in a much more rigorous fashion’.
She said yesterday: ‘The report clearly illustrates that the board was not kept appropriately informed about the project as it was being developed. External expert advice was ignored.
‘Information was also withheld from the board.
‘Significant contracts were committed to without the knowledge or approval of the full board.
‘The executive should have been interrogated by the board on the project, on an ongoing basis and in a much more rigorous fashion.
‘The commercial risks associated with an undertaking of this nature were grossly underestimated. The project was not appropriately stress tested.’
Amongst other findings in the report, it was noted that €75,000 in advertising revenue was allocated to sponsorship for the musical, even though the client in question had not paid to sponsor the venture.
Ms Ní Raghallaigh said: ‘The report also highlights a failure in generally accepted accounting practices, in that sponsorship was not correctly presented to the board and all costs were not properly captured and linked to the project.’
Ms Ní Raghallaigh said last night that the RTÉ board is happy to attend Oireachtas committees to discuss the findings set out in the Grant Thornton report into Toy Show The Musical.
In a statement yesterday evening she said board members are happy to attend the Public Accounts Committee and the Oireachtas Media Committee, and has ‘formally notified both committees to
‘One option is to sack the board’
that effect’.
Despite the debacle, Ms Ní Raghallaigh expressed confidence in members of the current board who also sat on the board during the time of Toy Show The Musical.
But one Cabinet source told the Mail: ‘There are two options; one is to sack the board members that were there and start again. I don’t think they’ll do that.
‘The other option is to keep them there and allow them to be interrogated by the Oireachtas committees. I think this is the most likely, so they’re safe until after that at least,’ they said.