BOGUS RTÉ JOBS ARE NOW €20M HEADACHE
As PAC report recommends changes, an old issue drags on
MORE financial problems are on the horizon at RTÉ and €20million won’t come ‘within an ass’s roar’ of what the national broadcaster will owe Revenue over bogus self-employment claims, Labour TD Alan Kelly has said.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has concluded that RTÉ’s financial settlement to Revenue for misclassification of workers could cost the broadcaster many multiples of the €1.2million it has paid to date.
The committee, which held 16 hours of hearings into issues of financial governance and controls at RTÉ, yesterday produced its report with 21 recommendations for the national broadcaster.
THE Taoiseach has said the Government will decide on a new TV funding model by the summer.
Leo Varadkar and Tánaiste Micheál Martin have both reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to make a Cabinet decision before the Dáil summer recess in July.
The Taoiseach said the government will make a ‘judgment call’ on how to fund the broadcaster as revenues have fallen by over €21m since controversies at RTÉ arose.
The 70-page document sets out the issues identified over the course of four public hearings, and five published external reports into RTÉ, including the use of barter accounts, the underwriting of a commercial agreement for former host Ryan Tubridy, exit packages and the €2.2million loss on Toy Show The Musical. The report recommends RTÉ publish the staff position and exact payment for all those who leave the national broadcaster on exit packages worth more than €150,000.
It also recommends against the use of confidentiality agreements around exit packages and says that anyone who leaves with a golden handshake should be obliged to appear before Oireachtas committee hearings if called.
Committee members described some of the recommendations as ‘common sense’, ‘basic’ and ‘corporate governance 101’.
However, bogus self-employment is the next problem that needs to be rectified at RTÉ, and director general Kevin Bakhurst told the PAC last year that there is ‘less than’ €20million set aside to deal with the Department of Social Protection’s assessment of PRSI liabilities for nearly 700 misclassified workers.
Yesterday, Deputy Kelly said this ‘won’t come within an ass’s roar of what is required based on findings to date and decisions that have been made’. The department is currently examining 695 cases of suspected bogus self-employment at RTÉ, with decisions reached in around 160 cases.
RTÉ said it has already made a €1.2million payment to Revenue in respect of 35 cases of misclassification of employment.
‘If you multiply that by the amount of people affected, across the number of years affected, and the pro-rata payments and inflation, it will be much, much, much, much more,’ Mr Kelly said.
He said the ‘scale of this will be potentially bigger’ than the scandals we have seen so far in RTÉ, and that it should be resolved in the next two years.
The station previously told the committee it could take 15 years for the issue to be resolved, as the cases go back to the 1980s, which Mr Kelly said is ‘totally unacceptable’. ‘It should never have been tolerated and they would gain some credibility if they commit to cleaning it up quickly,’ he said.
Mr Kelly said that Mr Bakhurst needs to set up a sub-committee on the RTÉ board to oversee progress on the matter.
PAC chair Brian Stanley said that total liabilities for RTÉ could be ‘multiples of the €20million they have set aside’. He also high lighted that three full-time staff in the human resources department in RTÉ are dedicated to working on the issue, along with the entire Scope division in the Department of Social Protection.
‘It’s a fair assessment to say it could end up costing RTÉ multiples of €20million,’ said Mr Stanley. ‘Nobody has a crystal ball to say where this is going to end up.’
The PAC chair noted that workers affected would be entitled to other compensation around holiday pay or sick pay that they missed out on over the years, which will also add to the bill.
‘It’s a huge sum of money given that RTÉ is in trouble financially,’ he said.
The PAC report recommended that RTÉ update the committee in June on the investigations by the department and ‘any revisions to the estimated liability to the department, including any settlements made to it’.
Other recommendations by the PAC include introducing a written policy in relation to negotiations with presenters and their representatives, ensuring no ‘side deals’ are undertaken with employees or contractors, and developing a policy on promotional work undertaken by staff.
One of the central recommendations – to bring RTÉ under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) after three decades of independent auditing – is already being considered by the Government.
The Tánaiste said the Government will now have to give the report from the PAC ‘due consideration’. Micheál Martin said the ‘editorial independence’ of RTÉ will have to be maintained, in the face of recommendations to bring it under the remit of the C&AG.
‘We need to make sure that whatever we do, the interface between politics and RTÉ is not one that jeopardises or undermines the editorial independence of RTÉ and its conduct of public service broadcasting,’ said the Fianna Fáil leader.
Sinn Féin TD Mr Stanley said the Government ‘cannot sidestep’ the PAC report, and urged RTÉ to implement all of the 21 recommendations.
‘Nobody has a crystal ball’