Arts Council has no ‘realistic prospect’ of recovering €200,000
Almost €200,000 in Arts Council funding has been lost, with “no realistic prospect” of recovery, after a third party that was to issue grants on its behalf went into liquidation.
The situation has been described as ‘extraordinary’ by TDs, who queried how the Arts Council allowed the payments to go to the third party.
Filmbase, a Dublin-based resource for filmmakers, went into liquidation last March, following an Arts Council audit.
However, it has now emerged that €196,000 of the funding the Arts Council paid Filmbase, to administer an arts programme on its behalf, never reached their intended beneficiaries.
The issue has been detailed in the Arts Council’s 2017 annual report, which was submitted to the Oireachtas this week.
In March, 2018, the Arts Council became aware that the organisation had not, in fact, paid the 2017 grants to the intended beneficiaries,” the report states.
“The organisation went into liquidation shortly afterwards. Following legal advice, the Arts Council has undertaken to honour all payments due.
“The Arts Council has estimated that a total of €196,000 is due to intended beneficiaries, including some amounts in relation to previous years.
“The Arts Council has no realistic prospect of recovering these amounts from the grant-funded entity, now in liquidation.”
In the report, the Arts Council said its in-house control process is designed to ensure that advanced funding only goes to organisations after the council has verified that the conditions attached to previous allocations have been met.
“However, the full amount of funding for the arts programme was advanced to this organisation in one tranche in January, 2017, and before the 2016 financial statements were received,” it said.
“The Arts Council plans to review its controls over funding to outside organisations, in particular where funding is provided in one tranche.
It also plans to review its processes for assessing the financial viability of grant-funded organisations,” the report said.
The matter came before the Oireachtas’ Public Accounts Committee yesterday, and while Filmbase was not named in the report or during the committee proceedings, the Arts Council yesterday confirmed to the Irish Examiner that it is the organisation at the centre of the issue.
The Arts Council told this newspaper that there are six artists or arts organisations affected, which were due to receive grants towards full production funding, balance-of-production funding, or balance-of-exhibition funding.
Speaking at the committee meeting, Sinn Féin TD David Cullinane described the situation as “extraordinary”, and said he does not accept that the monies were lost because of what the Arts Council has called a “weakness” in its control measures.
“Weaknesses suggest that they’re not there — of course they’re there, they weren’t adhered to,” he said.
Independent TD Catherine Connolly said “it is difficult to sit here and listen to this, when so many arts groups are struggling on the ground”.
“Alarm bells ring here for me, when I hear this. How does an administrative body go into liquidation?” she asked.
The 2017 annual report also revealed cases where the Arts Council did not comply with procurement rules.
“During 2017, the Arts Council incurred expenditure of €120,916, where the procedures employed did not comply with procurement rules,” the report said.
“In the main, this related to the rollover of existing contracts for a number of services. The Arts Council is undertaking, or has now completed, tender processes in relation to all contracts that had been rolled-over.”
