Minister clears demotion of principal

The education minister has signed off on the demotion of the principal of a Cork college following a disciplinary process.

Tim Kelleher, who was the principal of Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa (CSN) in Cork, a City of Cork VEC (CCVEC) college where student numbers were inflated and where staff set up a company which sold IT services to the college, was informed of the decision by letter yesterday.

The imposition of the sanction takes immediate effect, CCVEC chief executive Ted Owens told the board later.

Mr Owens was not available for comment last night.

Mr Kelleher could not be contacted.

His demotion follows a lengthy disciplinary process which was triggered in 2009 after the CCVEC investigated the misreporting of CSN student numbers to the department.

The inflated numbers resulted in the department sanctioning more teachers and over-allocating grants to CSN between 2004 and 2009.

The extra staff and grants are estimated to have cost the taxpayer almost €800,000.

A subsequent audit then uncovered IT procurement irregularities at the college. It found CSN paid up to €140,000 to two companies owned by two of its IT staff for services and equipment without always seeking competitive quotes.

An IT technician who owned a company became a supplier to the CCVEC in 1997, and recorded €161,954 worth of business with it up to 2009.

In 2003, that technician got an IT procurement job at Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa.

Three years later, the technician and CSN’s head of IT, Richard O’Sullivan, set up another IT firm which did €25,410 worth of business with the college between 2007 and 2009.

Although Mr Kelleher became aware in Dec 2007 of Mr O’Sullivan’s conflict of interest, he still signed off on a €12,563 order for 17 laptops from the IT firm.

In Jun 2008, the technician retired from the college and Mr O’Sullivan took sole interest in the firm.

However, the technician went on to do €28,000 worth of contracted IT support work for CSN between Aug 2008 and Jun 2009.