Committee backs VEC chief over lost funds

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.

Barra O Briain, the chief executive of the County Cork VEC, said he regrets the debt that arose following the collapse of a private company which had entered into a €215,00 lease purchase deal with the VEC.

“But the County Cork VEC and its executive cannot have accountability for a company that closes down. It’s a pity it happened, but it did happen,” he said.

He also revealed that he has received “vindictive” letters since the Irish Examiner first reported last month that the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) and the Department of Education have each raised concerns about the deal.

Mr O Briain was addressing a special VEC meeting in Mallow yesterday which was sought by chairman, Cllr Noel O’Connor, to discuss the fallout from the 2005 deal between the VEC and Mobile Voyager Solutions (MVS).

The department said it was kept in the dark about the deal and the way the funding was arranged.

But in a detailed briefing to committee members yesterday, Mr O Briain defended the deal.

He said MVS was engaged in 2005 by the VEC-run Glanmire Community College to provide computer-generated animated learning aids to the school.

The €215,000 lease purchase deal was overseen by the school’s then board of management and by VEC board officers, including Mr O Briain, and that once the money was paid to MVS, arrangements were made for it to supply a range of hardware and software to the school, and to make 12 repayments to the VEC.

MVS supplied equipment totalling some €142,000 but made just three repayments, totalling €53,996, before the company collapsed in 2006, leaving the VEC with a debt of just over €18,000.

Mr O Briain stressed however that all of the equipment and software is still in use by the school.

He said he discussed the issue with a finance unit in the Department of Education in September 2006 and legal advice was sought.

But despite the difficulties, the County Cork VEC has had all of its accounts certified by the C&AG since 2006, he said.

Committee members welcomed Mr O Briain’s briefing and, following a proposal from Cllr Tadgh O’Donovan, they unanimously agreed a motion of full confidence in the chief executive.