Outdoor centre reprimanded for overspending

Spending restrictions were placed on an outdoor education centre after it was punished for allowing “bad practices” to feed a serious deficit problem.

Kinsale Outdoor Education Centre had its order book taken off it in 2009 following a critical audit by CCVEC.

According to a report to a sub-committee of the VEC, this raised problems which contributed to a deficit of almost €30,000 at the end of 2008.

“An audit was conducted on the accounts of Kinsale OEC, at which stage various instances of bad practices were observed, resulting in the centre being in a serious financial deficit situation.

“The order book was revoked from the OEC and approval was to be sought from the CEO before any order was made,” it said.

The former CEO of CCVEC, Barra Ó Bríain, met with the manager of the centre, Victor Fusco, in Aug 2009 in a bid to resolve the problem.

This followed meetings between Mr Ó Bríain and CCVEC’s audit committee, in which the body was criticised for not confronting the OEC sooner.

CCVEC records show there was concern among its audit committee that the seriousness with which its auditors viewed the situation was not communicated to the board of management at Kinsale OEC.

The then town councillor, Mary Evans, a member of the audit committee and of the Kinsale OEC’s board of management, told the meeting there was confusion over how the issue was being dealt with.

“[She] said the information given to BOM members was different to that presented [to the committee],” the report said.

CCVEC accounts show, in 2008, Kinsale OEC ran a deficit of €29,960. The bulk of its €350,607 budget went on salaries.

Yesterday, Mr Fusco said the deficit that was built up had accumulated over a number of years. He said it was cleared within a short space of time, rejected the audit report statements that the centre had suffered from bad practices.

He said rules had been changed by auditors and the centre was judged on them retrospectively.

He said the sanctions placed on Kinsale OEC had since been lifted and it turned a surplus in 2010.

“The auditors changed the rules and that is a decision auditors make. Practices were developed and they were applied retrospectively.

“The rules were tightened up and we have adhered to all those tightened rules,” he said.