€1,000-a-day job filled without following procedures

Assistant secretary of the Department of Higher Education William Beausang emailed presidents of WIT and IT Carlow to inform them that the proper procurement process would not be used in the hiring of Tom Boland.

A €1,000-a-day job at the new Technological University of the South East was filled without regard to proper procurement procedures, which are supposed to apply to all positions over €25,000. 

Tom Boland was announced as executive director of the Technological University of the South East consortium by Higher Education Minister Simon Harris last July.

The Department of Higher Education denied involvement in hiring Mr Boland, the former chief executive of the Higher Education Authority, to expedite the merging of IT Carlow and Waterford Institute of Technology.

In response to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request in late 2020, the department claimed Mr Boland was hired by WIT and IT Carlow, so it had no documents to produce. 

However, further FOI requests to both colleges reveal communication between the department and the colleges in relation to Mr Boland's employment.

In an email dated November 9 from the assistant secretary of the Department of Higher Education, William Beausang, to the two college presidents, Mr Beausang states “clearly, the foregoing process did not allow time for the undertaking of a formal recruitment or procurement process”. 

Mr Beausang cited the “backdrop of other urgent and important work priorities related to the response to the pandemic” as a reason why the appointment had to be made expeditiously. 

The email was sent four months after Mr Boland was publicly appointed. 

Appointments of people earning over €25,000 need to go through the public procurement process unless there are “extreme circumstances”. 

Former chief executive of the Higher Education Authority Tom Boland, who was appointed executive director of the Technological University of the South East consortium by Higher Education Minister Simon Harris last July.

The partially redacted document shows the contract with Mr Boland is full-time, until such a time as a decision is made on the TUSE process, and has a daily rate of €1,000 a day.

In January 2021, Labour spokesperson for Education Aodhán Ó Ríordáin asked Mr Harris, via parliamentary question, for the “terms of reference of the independent person he appointed" in July 2020, and if he would make a statement on the matter.

Mr Harris responded in a similar nature to his department, saying that although he announced the appointment, it was made by the TUSEI consortium comprising IT Carlow and Waterford IT.