There were four colleges in total.
Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Sean Fleming, has admitted that the committee was given misleading information from representatives of UCC, DIT, UL and NUIG about the running of their financial affairs.
The comments come after a Prime Time special on Thursday night, RTÉ Investigates: Universities Unchallenged, revealed how tens of millions of euro of taxpayers money is wasted every year by Ireland’s universities and colleges.
Most notably, at the University of Limerick, the programme discovered that there were problems with procurement, ethics and blatant evidence of the Department of Education being misled.
Misleading evidence included two incidents of severance packages which were paid out to two senior members of staff.
RTÉ Investigates discovered that one senior member, who was supposed to get €120,000, received almost twice the severance payment.
The other, who should have received €165,000, was given almost one-third more. Furthermore, after leaving the college and setting up consultancy companies, both men were hired back by UL for a further three years of work.
Neither of the men’s contracts had gone through the proper procurement, something which was hidden from the Department of Education.
Issues that were also raised from the other colleges included:
Ernst & Young report found DIT spent €29.5m over 3 yr period, without going through the proper internal approval processes #RTEInvestigates
— RTÉ (@rte) May 25, 2017
In all at NUIG, it took 8yrs & 3 tender awards to deliver the buildings with a cost to the taxpayer of an extra €20 million #RTEInvestigates
— RTÉ (@rte) May 25, 2017
UCC bought IMI for "nothing" but later clarified, on 6 occasions, there was a multi-million euro price-tag #RTEInvestigates
— RTÉ One (@RTEOne) May 25, 2017
Fleming told Morning Ireland: “The level of arrogance that was displayed by some of the heads of the colleges at the Public Accounts Committee, I think came through on the programme last night.”
The Chairman of the PAC said a serious culture change was needed at the most senior level and said he would welcome the “change of leadership” at University of Limerick.
He added that the university heads showed a lack of “openness and candour” but the committee found that the whistleblowers were “honest and straightforward.”
Mr Fleming believes that there was “a systematic failure to keep financial accounts up to date” at these universities and also criticised the “lack of hands-on approach” by the Department of Education in continuing to fund the colleges when up-to-date financial information was unavailable.
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