Findings of UL audit a ‘serious concern’ as Comptroller begins special report
THE Comptroller & Auditor General is conducting a special report into a number of issues at the University of Limerick, due to ‘serious concerns’ which persist after an internal audit was revealed by the Irish Mail on Sunday.
The findings showed that UL misled the C&AG Seamus McCarthy, the Department of Education & Skills, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and RTÉ in attempts to cover up a series of unauthorised severance payments worth more than €1.2m, breaches in procurement policy, and ‘excessive’ spends for staff to study abroad for PhDs.
Mr McCarthy told the Public Accounts Committee that the findings of the audit are of ‘very considerable concern’ and his office is taking matters ‘very seriously’. He also said ‘there may be questions of individual rather than organisational responsibility’ at UL and his office is drafting a report at present. The report will take two months to finalise and will then be passed to the Department of Education and Skills, and the PAC.
PAC chairman Sean Fleming questioned whether the special report will ‘deal with the substantive issues’, including the interaction between the university and the C&AG.
‘I anticipate it will certainly deal with most of those issues and perhaps all of them,’ said Mr McCarthy. Specifically, former UL president Don Barry and UL’s director of human resources, Tommy Foy, provided inaccurate and incomplete information to the C&AG and Department of Education seven times between them. This was in relation to two employees who received more than €800,000 between them in stepping down agreements and were then rehired for consultancy work at the same time.
Sinn Féin deputy David Cullinane said: ‘It seems there is some restructuring going on [within UL], but if individuals misled the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General or if there were errors, procedural lapses, process failures or whatever by individuals, who is held to account in the university?’