VEC staff must state business interests

ALL Vocational Education Committees (VECs) are to be reminded that teachers and other staff involved in purchasing must declare any business interests after irregularities were discovered at a Cork college.

The instruction from the Department of Education follows an investigation at City of Cork VEC (CCVEC) that revealed Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa bought IT goods and services worth more than €140,000 from firms owned by two of its own IT staff without always properly obtaining quotes from competitors.

Both staff at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa (CSN) — head of IT Richard O’Sullivan and an IT technician who retired in June 2008 — were directly involved in the procurement of IT equipment. They had not declared the conflicts of interest as required under a 2005 code of ethics for VEC staff in relation to the two companies, one of which was owned by the IT technician on his own and the other jointly owned from 2006.