Audit finds VEC made inappropriate payments

A Co Cork educational centre for early school leavers made inappropriate payments to staff and students, an audit by the State’s spending watchdog found.

The Comptroller and Auditor General’s report on the management of Macroom Youthreach draws heavily on the findings of an internal VEC audit, which were previously revealed by the Irish Examiner.

Between 2007 and 2012, payments totalling €114,000 were made to eight students who were subsequently deemed by the VEC to be ineligible for the payments.

Participants in the Youthreach programme typically receive a weekly attendance allowance of between €77 and €188 and may also receive additional amounts to cover travel, childcare and meals.

The internal Vocational Support Services Unit (VSSU) report, completed in August 2010, had also estimated the VEC paid for 1,070 tuition hours in the year 2009/10, estimated to cost €60,000, where teachers were not timetabled to teach.

The VEC had also engaged part-time teachers for an additional 500 non-teaching hours, used for administrative work associated with the centre, at an estimated cost of approximately €25,000 for the same academic year.

Payments were also made to two part-time staff without deduction of PAYE and PRSI. The report further stated “it appeared that two individuals in receipt of a student allowance were not attending training but were in fact employed to provide tuition in English”.

Elsewhere, the report noted that between 2010 and 2013, legal settlements amounting to €111,600 were made by the VEC from its own funds and a further 23 cases were settled and paid for by the VEC’s insurers at a cost of €95,000. Legal fees of €442,200 were also incurred.

A tax audit of Co Cork VEC by the Revenue Commissioners resulted in a settlement of €115,700 in June 2013, and related to tax periods dating back to 2003.

The C&AG also found Co Cork VEC entered into leases for buildings in Bandon, Ballincollig, Fermoy, Macroom and Mallow without prior approval from the Department of Education.

The report noted that concerns for the running of the centre were prompted by the “large volume of correspondence” that the Public Accounts Committee received on a range of complaints and allegations about the operations of County Cork VEC, some with reference to incidents dating back to 2000.

Ted Owens, chief executive of Cork Education and Training Board which replaced both Cork’s county and city VECs, welcomed publication of the C&AG report: “These legacy issues have and are being addressed by Cork ETB, since its foundation in 2013, to ensure these failings in control procedures and policy will not happen in the new organisation.”

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