9 Oct 2013, 10:31
The C&AG Special Report Number 78: Matters Arising out of Education Audits is on the agenda of the Committee of Public Accounts at its meeting tomorrow, Thursday, 10th October 2013.
The primary witness will be Dr Ruairdhrí Neavyn, President, Waterford Institute of Technology. Representatives from the Department of Education and the Higher Education Authority will also be in attendance to assist the Committee.
Committee Chairman John McGuinness TD said: “The Special Report was last examined by the Committee on 27 September and 4 October 2012 and our hearings into the report will resume tomorrow.
The main issue for tomorrow’s meeting is the second Deloitte & Touche Report. This report contains further analysis of expenditure at the Office of the President for the period 1 January 2009 to 31 May 2011 and was not available to the Committee when the Institute was last before us. The report identified numerous instances of expenditure which may not have been Institute related, expenditure which may not have represented value for money and also expenditure where there may have been personal benefit to the former President. The Committee may wish to discuss progress on the implementation of Audit Committee recommendation contained in the report, the enhanced control environment now in place at the Institute as well as any reimbursements sought or obtained from the former President. There were a number of issues regarding the chartering of two flights by the former President, which were discussed at length during the meeting of 4 October 2012. The Committee will be keen to receive an update on the Institute’s investigations into these flights.
The Committee will also focus on the Quigley Report, which was commissioned by the Minister for Education in November 2012, to carry out a statutory inspection in relation to companies providing services in WIT. These issues were previously raised by the C&AG in Special Report Number 78. The key findings in the Quigley Report were that the relationships between WIT and the companies operating on campus are not appropriate and that the companies should be acquired and restructured immediately. Progress on this could be discussed as well as the future financing arrangements for the Institute’s sports complex project and student accommodation project, which had presented significant financial problems for the Institute.”
This meeting will take place in Committee Room 1 at 10am tomorrow, Thursday, 10th October 2013.
Committee proceedings can be followed live here.
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Committee of Public Accounts Membership
John McGuinness (Chairman)
Kieran O’Donnell (Vice Chairman)
Paul J Connaughton,
John Deasy,
Paschal Donohoe,
Gerald Nash,
Simon Harris,
Michael McCarthy,
Mary Lou McDonald,
Sean Fleming,
Eoghan Murphy,
Derek Nolan,
Shane Ross