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THE PUBLIC ACCOUNTS Committee (PAC) is to seek legal advice after it claims it was misled.
The claims came in an RTÉ Investigates show aired tonight, which highlighted a number of incidents in the third-level sector.
The show uncovered evidence of breaches of ethics and procurement laws at the University of Limerick.
Over 150,000 transactions were examined by the programme, using a year of Freedom of Information documentation. It outlines billions of euros of spending undertaken by government departments, public bodies and agencies.
According to the programme, NUIG awarded a construction contact to a company backed by developer Bernard McNamara despite red flags raised by internal reports. The company subsequently went into receivership.
In all, it took eight years and three tender awards to deliver the buildings with a cost to the taxpayer of an extra €20 million.
At the University of Limerick, RTÉ Investigates examined a range of practices including:
UL has since agreed to the establishment of an independent review into the governance, HR practices and financial procedures.
The programme also outline how UCC paid more than it disclosed to the PAC for a takeover of the Irish Management Institute (IMI).
Fine Gael TD Alan Farrell, who is a member of the PAC says that malpractice in the sector must be addressed.
“I was shocked by the false and misleading testimony provided by UCC in relation to its merger with IMI, and their preposterously inadequate response to RTÉ.
“Procedural flaws in the treatment of whistle-blowers and mismanagement of severance deals were also uncovered.
Worryingly, €100,000 plus was spent on pens and medallions for retiring staff in a shop linked to a member of the board of the college without any apparent regard for ethical obligations or tendering requirements.
“There was also wilful misdirection of information to the PAC. UL and UCC were certainly economical with information in their communication with us.
“There seems to be a feeling in some third level institutions that they are accountable to nobody and this must be urgently addressed.”
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Jesus Christ is there no department or institution that’s not screwing the taxpayer.
@Trevor Beale: Nope
@trevor Beale,that dePENds, Sorry couldn’t resist ,
@Trevor Beale: actually I think Jesus is too, well not him but his employees are!
@Trevor Beale:
There isn’t a single department left in this land clean enough to tackle corruption. Ireland has to be the most unashamedly smuggest Chronie fest in the developed world. After the Vatican.
@Tweed Cap: So what people really want to know is will this second place finish get us into Europe next season or will we have to go through the qualifiers?
@Trevor Beale: Ireland is corrupt beyond fixable under ff fg liebour.sack them or face more tax increases in order to service their corruption bottom line.
@Bobby Phelan: FF and FG are indeed dreadful, but could you’d you tell us who this political party you keep harping on about that would not increase taxes and has no history of corruption.
@Trevor Beale: Meanwhile, my Autistic child had to wait 1 1/2 years to be assessed by a psychologist because there’s just ONE psychologist available in the whole Laois area. I had to endup going private. Paying USC for nothing.
@Juan Venegas: That’s what they want, everyone going private.
@Trevor Beale: Ask on who’s watch all this was done. Fianna Gael. and I bet they are all Fianna Gael voters being highly paid.
@Paul Fahey: so you trying to say that no one can run a country without being corrupt.
How many pens and medallions would you get for 100k, they probably had to build a new building just to house them.
Has RTE ever done an investigation into itself? Interested to know, seem great at pointing out everyone else issues as a public service, yet what happens to all our licence fee AND advertising. Who makes a decision to hire and pay Ray F’arcy and Co… Now that is something I’d watch.
@Brown Boots: Join is tonight as Prime Time investigates Prime Time!
Fitzpatrick yesterday, Universities today. Ireland’s elites? Screwing the Plebs. Enjoy your work tommorow everyone, there playing golf with each other.
@Cathal: stroke-play?
@Brown Boots: Ah nice
@Cathal: There is no comparison between the negative impact on our lives caused by the leaders of Irish banks and the overwhelmingly positive contribution made by our universities. This story is of a certain Looney in the HEA wanting to excerpt control over increasingly independent institutions. If we want our universities to be the best in the world they will have to develop independence in the direction of MIT, Stanford, Cambridge and Oxford. In doing so that diminishes the power of the HEA and the best they can come up with is a story about pens. QED
@Dan Jacobson: It’s not just about pens though they must have been made of gold, not gold plated. It’s about the awarding of contracts by people with a vested interest.
@Cindy Crawford: one of the problems we have in this country is distinguishing between degrees of wrongness and holding people who have done big wrongs to account. So busting a banking system which then busted a health and education system causing death, misery and lost potential on a national scale is not equivalent to dubious procurement of pens. The man who bust the bank which bust the system walked free with a smile on his face. In the meantime you are fed this bullshit about pens as a distraction. They think we are stupid.
So that’s where the increase in university fees is going.
Parents struggling to pay their children’s accommodation and course fees ,while the smug lying administrators who run these Institutions
Go for the Bling.
It has to change,and it has to be fought for.
@Brian O Reilly: So what will you do about it Brian?
@Martin Flood: Not vote for Fianna Gael is a good start. They are encouraging corruption. Just look Fitzpatrick going free and the vulture funds being promoted here.
Only the best will do in University
Separates the wheat from the chaff old bean
I think we are discovering that the Irish in general have a leaning toward corruption. They just can’t help themselves once temptation comes their way.
It is the only explanation. The common trait of every corruption scandal in the country to date has been practically all of them have been Irish people.
Whether it is political parties channelling funds into false ‘Research Companies’, fuel laundering, universities on the take or councillors on the fiddle, we really are masters of the form.
Time we got more foreigners in to fix the place up. Maybe England can send over a few good people experienced in ethical administration to show us how to run the place properly?
@alphanautica: But these are the people Fianna Gael call the elite. The entrepenuers who lead by expertise. No they are robbers in suits. no matter how smart they dress or no matter how grand their accents they are common thieves. White collar crime is rampant and Fianna Gael promotes it.
I’m more worried about the University(ies) that haven’t been highlighted…. a certain great philanthropist CF has long, long been associated with…
@Margate: what’s your point?
As usual the whistle blowers are the ones penalised. Is it possible for a public servant to be fired or do they have to rob a bank on their lunch break.
@Micheal Anthony Moran: Because those in the public service are untouchable. They are protected because the government are as corrupt as them.
legal advise for what?its ireland,white collar stuff is allowed and a privledge,perks of the job wink wink nudge nudge
@Andrew Corrigan: Ireland is run by white collar criminals. Thats why Leo Varadkar can get away with demonising people on Social welfare while not uttering a word about this corruption at the top levels of Irish society. I thought these people were educated. I thought these people were the better off and the elite. No. They are common thieves. The only difference between them and the robber on the street is they have the government to back them up.
It is maddening that it was because of all this waste that the student loan system was recommended. Anyone taking handouts from the tax payers should be accountable. What was on this programme tonight was outrageous.
@Eamonn Sheen: OK genius. Give us your economic case for any university in this country being on a handout. You might just qualify your credentials and personal net contribution to the economy by way of comparison.
In fairness, at least they were economical with their information! LOL!
I think this is genuine expense. We are all entitled to a gift upon leaving employment. some people just give out and want no one to enjoy anything. They’ll probably keep these gifts all their lives. It’s well deserved in my opinion. Shame on rte for targeting the universities. Afterall who has not gone to university yet now object to this. How hypocritical.
@James McCarthy, you obviously didn’t watch the programme, James. The problem is not so much with the awards themselves as with the awarding of the contract to supply the pens and watches, etc. to a member of the university governing body
@James Darby:
Exactly.
@6ljJQRRU: So two men could get doctorates for 100 thousand paid and all expenses paid trip to US.????? Nobody deserves the state to pay for this.
I thought that when someone retired the persons colleagues had a whip around to buy a present and have a small function to give them a send off.
@Aine O Connor: I worked in a school for 10 years and when I left I got a card with zero in it. Nothing. Thats how generous the civil service is.
And it goes on and on,is there any one in charge of the purse strings in this corrupt sh#t hole of a country.
Oh sorry yes there is, corrupt people put in by fg and or ff
Where does it end? And the government are worried about welfare cheats.
@Cindy Crawford: Its popular for Leo to hate those on welfare because his voters and all Fianna Gael hate the low paid and poor. They love the elite the educated the bankers and developers. In short they love those arrogant and full of themselves. Ego maniacs who think they are saviours of the world. Parasites who allow foreign vulture funds to feed from the very people who keep this country going.
It seems the only time our public service exercises genuine creative thinking is when they are thinking of ways to scam the system. If they put the same energy into running our public services we mightn’t be such a mess of a country
Watched this program last night , the sheer level of arrogance and willful disrespect shown by the University Heads was unbelievable
They clearly see themselves above all other members of society
The smirk on the face of the UCC financial officer was simply unreal
There is no way I would have kept calm with these people
Until and unless they give the PAC teeth its a waste of time , people brought before it can lie and present false information knowing there are no consequences in doing so
Government funding for all the universities highlighted should be cut back ( not stopped) until proper and true answers are given but no one has the balls to do that
And i stand to be corrected but do the student body not have a significant Oirchteas vote
@Tony O Dwyer: It proved that PAC is a joke with no power whatsoever. A talking shop. I saw that arrogance too. It sickened my stomach. Arrogant talent less crooks in suits screwing the public system with no conscience whatsoever. They should be arrested and thrown into jail like the common thieves that they are. They prance around in gowns and strut around like peacocks full of their own false self importance. They have turned this country into a tax haven and corrupt hole for all the vulture funds. All done under the approval of Fianna Gael.
It must have been fair bad if a TD was shocked.
The” pillars of society” just keep on taking.good old Ireland,no accountability and no consequences for these criminals.
@@mdmak33: These are the pillars not that Varadkar says he words for because they get up early in the morning. Yes they do get up early to screw the public.
It seems to be the culture in Ireland will it ever stop hard honest taxpayers paying for all these greedy louts where is Revenue Commissioner’s in all of this surely all this monies had to be declared it’s time for big change in this country the politicians are doing nothing to stop all this no repercussions its appalling time to change all this for the common good
@Anastasia: as a Limerick man I think Tadgh Kearny Jewelers in Limerick shoul dbe boycotted.
All I am going to get is the pension I have paid for.
@SJD: you’re not a public servant then I take it!
The worrying thing is that it takes a TV station to uncover this corruption. The media in general are attempting to be watchdogs for our corrupt public servants. So whether it’s councillors in Galway, Hugh McElvaney in Monaghan (still on the council), the FAS debacle, the many Garda scandals…..what are SIPO and these other supposed ‘watchdogs’ doing? I’m sure if they dig deeper this is just the tip of the iceberg.
@Sean @114: This is the country that Noonan and Kenny has moulded. Well What do you think of it.
From what I saw they gave themselves their own permission to spend other people’s money on themselves
Martin Flood ,I will by all the legal means of protest and using my democratic options ,
and by encouraging people to use there hard fought for “right to vote ”
Especially the young ,of which my Generation as sold into Economic and financial poverty for the rest of their lives .
The Pens will hardly peel like the Olympic Medals only gold plated for our boys and girls
have your say