THE FINANCIAL controller at Waterford Institute of Technology did not publicly raise concerns about excessive spending by the former college president for fear it would seem like “sour grapes”.
The Committee of Public Accounts heard that non-pay expenditure in the president’s office increased from some €30,000 in 2000, the year before Prof Kieran Byrne took up the post, to a high point of some €635,000 in 2008.
The committee, which was discussing audits of spending by five third-level institutions, heard that hundreds of thousands of euro had been spent on public relations advice, acquired without adherence to procurement policies.
A further €126,000 was spent on taxis, €134,000 on fine art, €73,000 on rooms at the Arlington Lodge Hotel in Dublin, more than €18,000 on flowers and €4,200 to charter a plane to fly from Waterford to Dublin.
The spending was detailed in reports on Waterford IT by Deloitte and Grant Thornton, which were completed at a total cost of €130,000 to the college.
Waterford IT financial controller Tony McFeely told the committee that within months of Prof Byrne’s appointment, he expressed concerns to the president over his compliance with procedures when submitting travel requests.
“His position was that in his previous job he was making similar submissions and there wasn’t an issue,” Mr McFeely said.
He said that when he refused to approve Prof Byrne’s requests, because he was not “comfortable” they adhered to policy, Prof Byrne sought out another member of staff to do it instead.
Fine Gael TD Kieran O’Donnell said it appeared Prof Byrne “rode roughshod” over the procedures of WIT and that it struck him his tenure was “bordering on a dictatorship”. He asked Mr McFeely if he had sought advice or raised his concerns with board members or other managers, which Mr McFeely said he had done, but on a confidential basis.
Asked why he had not raised them publicly, Mr McFeely said he was apprehensive. “I had been a candidate for the post and there was a view out there perhaps that it might be perceived as sour grapes, for example,” he said.
Mr O’Donnell said the affair had done a disservice to the entire education system. “Members of the management team were aware of it but this issue wasn’t stopped. It means there was a problem with governance . . . you could have a president come in and, for all intents and purposes, use €3.6 million as a slush fund.”
Committee chairman John McGuinness (Fianna Fáil) said he could not understand how such “scandalous” spending went undetected by the board of the institute, its audit committee or the Comptroller and Auditor General over a number of years.
He said it appeared nobody had “the bottle” to raise questions about Prof Byrne’s spending despite having had confidential discussions with Mr McFeely.
The current president of Waterford IT, Ruaidhrí Neavyn, said the institute wanted the State to be “reassured that all action has been taken to ensure this matter has been resolved”.
