FOLLOWING two years of denials, the remnants of County Cork VEC has finally had to accept its house was not in order. While managing its €100m annual budget, it failed to keep proper accounts and, because of these shortcomings, it underpaid it taxes.

A special needs service has been hit with an effective funding cut because of a failure by County Cork VEC to adhere to rules on the payment of teachers’ wages.

Funding has been sought to address failures at a €1m creche in Mallow which has already landed County Cork VEC into difficulty.

Child welfare is being compromised at a creche County Cork VEC broke procurement rules to build.

A €1m VEC creche that was supposed to facilitate a five-fold increase in affordable places is losing money and catering for the same number of preschool children than when it was based in a smaller unit next door.

County Cork VEC has been subjected to a far deeper probe of its tax affairs than previously thought.

Internal documents have revealed the pressure County Cork VEC is under to stem losses at two controversial projects.

Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has said he has no power to act on County Cork VEC’s request to remove a whistleblowing councillor from its board.

A VEC has asked Education Minister Ruairí Quinn to remove a committee member who helped to expose a number of financial problems within the group.

Two county councils have had to make substantial settlements with the tax authorities because they failed to properly account for staff allowances.

A former chairman of County Cork VEC has defended his role in unsanctioned lease and loan arrangements at a youth facility in Mallow.

The head of City of Cork Vocational Education Committee says he looks forward to continuing in the role after changes to a planned reshuffle of VEC chiefs nationally.

A VEC used taxpayers’ money to engage a barrister to see if it had been defamed by a newspaper investigation into its finances — despite a departmental warning not to spend money on such legal opinion.

It is outrageous that County Cork VEC should risk splurging public money in a possible defamation action against this newspaper over a probe into its finances.

County Cork VEC has voted to hire outside legal advisers to tell if any of its members or staff were defamed by news reports on waste and mismanagement in operations under its control.

The retired co-ordinator of Macroom Youthreach has appealed to the Public Accounts Committee to delay its probe of a damning audit into the centre he ran for four years.

CCVEC will no longer be able to avoid giving answers, writes investigative correspondent Conor Ryan

The man whose company was blamed for defaulting on a contract that left County Cork VEC with a €161,000 shortfall has said school authorities were responsible for the demise of the deal.

The Comptroller and Auditor General castigated County Cork VEC as well as Glanmire Community College for taking on a big risk in an emphatically one-sided deal.

Innovative software products which County Cork VEC invested €216,000 in, but signed away all rights to, were part of a package which subsequently attracted €400,000 in private sector capital.

The flagship boat for a €150,000-a-year Youthreach project has been locked in a boatyard since 2007, writes Investigative Correspondent Conor Ryan

THE man controversially voted onto a VEC board in place of a Church of Ireland representative has decided not to take up the job.

THE head of a Vocational Education Committee (VEC) was fully backed by committee members yesterday after he revealed how it has lost €18,000 of public money on a school IT project and not €167,000 as was feared.

REVELATIONS of a large debt heaped on County Cork VEC due to the collapse of a private computer company only came to light because of an anonymous tip-off to a powerful Dáil committee.

TWO housing projects, believed to be worth a combined €120 million, have been given the go-ahead in a Co Cork town.

FOUR Cork TDs from different political parties have joined forces in an effort to prevent the closure of Fort Mitchell Prison on Spike Island.