Local VEC project oversight ‘defective’

THE State spending watchdog has found Cork County VEC’s oversight of a costly and failed computer teaching programme at a Cork school was defective.

The Comptroller and Auditor General, John Buckley, said CCVEC had paid €168,000 to a private software development company — Mobile Voyager Solutions — but the contract was unclear and put taxpayers at a disadvantage.

The money formed the bulk of a €215,986 bill for the three-year lease of equipment to Glanmire Community College who eventually lost €161,990 when MVS went out of business and CCVEC was called on to meet the repayments.

The matter only came to light after an anonymous tip-off to the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee and was harshly criticised by the Department of Education. Mr Buckley subsequently investigated the deal and his report has found there were a number of areas in which the procedures of the school and VEC were deficient.

He said:

- The VEC could not identify who, within the MVS umbrella, actually received the €168,000 it sourced from the bank to pay for the project.

- Approval was not sought for the lease from either the VEC committee or the Minister for Education.

- The VEC shouldered the entire financial risk but the company got to keep all the copyright, software and documentation produced during the project.

- Even though it was a pilot initiative, the IT equipment was all bought by MVS and this was done outside public sector procurement rules.

- Another VEC school, as yet unidentified, signed a lease with MVS in a similar fashion to Glanmire Community College. In this case MVS did not reimburse any of the money it received, this was raised locally so the taxpayer did not suffer directly. The Department of Education is chasing up this second lease with the relevant VEC.

In addition Mr Buckley revealed two other schools were approached to take part in the deal but turned down the opportunity.

In the case of Glanmire Community College, MVS only paid back €53,996 before going bust. But, when the VEC went to recover the €161,990 outstanding, a letter was sent to a company with a similar name in Norway and not the Irish firm engaged in the Glanmire contract.

When this letter was returned to Cork, marked undelivered, the VEC decided to abandon efforts to recover the money because the legal costs were considered prohibitive. The VEC decided to cover this cost and the IT equipment stayed at Glanmire for other uses. The C&AG also questioned a number of aspects of the contract, which was signed by Glanmire Community College in November 2004 and amended in January 2005.

Despite the fact there was extensive day-to-day interaction with MVS, while the project was being developed, when problems surfaced the VEC found the contract could not adequately identify who was actually responsible for the work and who received the money supplied by the bank.

CCVEC could not be contacted for comment.