Wexford VEC spent €400k rent on vacant building
The VEC, which is now part of the Waterford and Wexford Education and Training Board, has been spending the money on its former headquarters, which it moved out of in 2006.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, Seamus McCarthy, said the money used to lease the building after it moved out was not effective. He said until the end of 2012 €400,000 had already been swallowed up.
The lease will not expire until October this year.
In response the ETB said the building was leased for at least two years after July, but it will have been vacant for six years by the time its lease expires later this year.
It said when the initial lease agreement ran out in 2008 the property market had collapsed. The VEC, and currently the ETB, has had to pay the landlord in excess of €60,000 annually because no tenant was forthcoming.
In 2006 the VEC left its old headquarters, which had eight years to run on its lease, in order to spend more than twice its previous rental budget to take up a second 10-year lease on a new headquarters.
This 10-year agreement has been costing the VEC €156,250 a year.
In his report on the VEC’s final set of accounts, which were laid before the Oireachtas this week, Mr McCarthy said €64,000 had been spent on the vacant building in 2012. In its explanation in the accounts, the VEC said the cost was tied to its decision to move to the new premises at Ardcavan Business Park.
The VEC’s financial statement said while it had got a tenant to cover a small portion of the rent, the bulk of the bill would be falling on the VEC until the lease ended. “The VEC moved to a new headquarters in July 2006. The lease for its former headquarters does not expire until October 2014. The annual rent is €67,000.
“A portion of the premises has been sublet. However the rental received falls short of the rental payable and as a result approximately €63,000 ineffective expenditure was incurred in 2012,” it said.
Overall the VEC’s rental bill fell marginally in 2012.
The financial statements also disclosed a significant fall in its legal and inquiry bills following a long running investigation into a €691 expenses claim.
The VEC had spent €60,590 on legal and inquiry costs in 2011 fell to €22,261 in 2012. This included a bill of €19,031 for human resource and industrial relations advice.
