Taxpayer paid €220k shortfall for exhibition

A €220,000 funding shortfall for an exhibition during Cork’s year as European Capital of Culture had to be met by taxpayers, the state spending watchdog has revealed.

The details, outlined in a report by Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) John Purcell, are to be examined later this year by the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC), its chairman Bernard Allen said last night.

The Crawford Municipal Art Gallery, funded through City of Cork Vocational Education Committee (VEC), ran the James Barry and Airgeadóir exhibitions as part of the 2005 festivities, with the former running into 2006. The plan was they would be self-financing, with running costs covered by grants from the Cork Capital of Culture Committee, private sponsorship and catalogue sales.

Although there was a surplus of €100,277 in October 2005 on the James Barry exhibition, costs had exceeded income by €66,675 by the end of the year as bills for transport and other services had started to arrive.

This rose to €140,000 by April 2006, with gallery director Peter Murray indicating to the VEC that only €100,000 was being provided by the Capital of Culture Committee, rather than the anticipated €200,000. He had told the VEC that the committee had encouraged a grant request in the region of €250,000 from the outset.

“By the time the grant award of €100,000 was announced, the gallery had entered into arrangements to borrow paintings from a wide range of museums, both in Europe and the United States,” Mr Purcell wrote.

“To cancel these arrangements would have jeopardised the quality of the exhibition, the preparation of the exhibition’s catalogue and, crucially, the gallery’s ability to request loans from those institutions in the future.”

By July 2006, the total shortfall had reached €219,459 which the Department of Arts, Sport and Tourism (DAST) paid to the VEC. A further shortfall of €29,703 on the Airgeadóir exhibition was made up by additional help from the main sponsor, Bowen Construction.

In response to the C&AG’s queries, VEC chief executive Ted Owens acknowledged the normal robust controls on budgets and spending were not applied but said the circumstances were exceptional.

Peter Murray was given extra responsibility for administering finances when his post of curator was upgraded to gallery director in September 2005. In light of his 20 years’ experience as curator and the impending transfer of control of the gallery to the DAST, Mr Owen said checks and balances imposed on other VEC operations were relaxed.

However, he said when the problems became obvious in March 2006, immediate steps were taken to control the situation.