Two schools misused €40k in funding

Two schools were found last year to have misused €40,000 they received from the Department of Education.

A further €4,000 loss was discovered in relation to irregular petty cash and credit card transactions in an organisation supported financially by the department.

These were among 10 cases of irregularities or suspected fraud at schools or organisations funded by the department, about which it received information or complaints last year.

The department was still investigating seven of them when it finalised its 2015 accounts earlier this year and the amounts of money involved are not known. But it was not yet clear at the time whether the cases involved fraud or irregularity, or were matters which arose due to human error. Most relate to issues around the use of grants from the department, errors or misrepresentation of pupil numbers, or inappropriate spending of public money.

The department said it will continue to make every reasonable effort to recover exchequer funds where fraud or irregularities have occurred.

“In circumstances where recovery is warranted, this occurs either by direct repayment or via the withholding of agreed sums from ancillary grants,” a spokesperson told the Irish Examiner.

He said there is no change regarding the status of the seven outstanding matters since they were detailed to the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) earlier this year.

A fraud which came to the department’s attention last year involved a figure of €24,000, and was one of 13 irregularities around which it began investigations in 2014.

The C&AG reported in 2011 how unwarranted salary costs of almost €800,000 were paid to staff at a Cork college whose principal had supplied incorrect enrolment figures between 2004 and 2008. This meant the equivalent of 13 whole-time jobs were created without justification, as staffing allocations are linked directly to student numbers.

The then principal of Coláiste Stiofáin Naofa was subsequently demoted by City of Cork Vocational Education Committee (now part of Cork Education and Training Board) in 2012 after the disciplinary process which followed. The college’s staffing allocation was also reduced on a staggered basis to reflect the inaccurate situation but without directly affecting the running of current courses.

The salaries of teachers and special needs staff are paid directly by the Department of Education to most of the country’s 4,000 primary and second-level schools. In the case of vocational schools and community colleges, staff are paid locally by the appropriate education and training board (ETB).

But for their day-to-day running costs, schools get a capitation grant based on pupil numbers so incorrect figures can result in overpayments. Schools may also benefit from a range of other Department of Education grants, including book grants, supports for small-scale and large-scale capital works which are locally managed, or for support staff like caretakers and secretaries.