Arts Council IT failure could have been stopped but ‘nobody said stop’, review finds
Arts minister Patrick O'Donovan on Tuesday updated Cabinet on the independent review into the Arts Council. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA Wire
A failed €6.7m IT project at the Arts Council could have been halted at several points, but “nobody said stop,” according to a review into the debacle.
The Arts Council — the State agency responsible for funding and developing the arts in Ireland — is almost entirely State-funded and received just under €134m in taxpayer funding in 2023.
The problems with the abandoned IT project emerged during the tenure of the previous Government, when the council fell under the remit of former arts minister Catherine Martin.
The original budget for the IT system stood at €3m.
By the time the council pulled the project, the total loss to the taxpayer was estimated at €5.3m, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General, with €1.2m expected to remain usable in a replacement system.
Arts minister Patrick O'Donovan on Tuesday updated Cabinet on the independent review into the Arts Council, which outlines 149 recommendations, including legislative proposals to improve governance of the body.
The report, authored by Niamh Brennan, identifies several key factors that led to the failed IT project, pointing in particular to board trust in senior management.
"The Board appeared to have had blind acceptance in the advice it was receiving from Arts Council management and third-party suppliers. The Board was not substantively engaged with the Project until the Project was experiencing budgetary overruns, by which time decisions that ultimately dictated the fate of the Project had already been made. However, even at that point, a more rigorous and questioning approach by the Board could have achieved at least some measure of Project rescue – but no one shouted stop.
"An Arts Council 2021 lessons-learned exercise commented 'The key stakeholders should consider stopping or pausing the project to address key issues.' Unfortunately, that lesson learned was not actioned.
"Although the Business and Finance Committee “noted” the 2021 lessons-learned report, it was never brought to the Board for substantive discussion or even escalated to the Audit and Risk Committee. Nor, does it appear, that the Board asked to see the full outcome of the exercise, let alone an action plan to respond to it."
The report also criticises a level of “informality” in the Department of Arts’ dealings with the council.
“We consider that there has been a certain informality attached to Department/Arts Council liaison meetings, including engagement with the Project. Liaison-meeting minutes, and actions arising from those meetings, do not reflect the Arts Council’s assertion that the Department was kept informed of each step of the Project, including where challenges with the Project were encountered,” it says, adding that matters were not escalated within the department.
“When the Department became aware of the multiple increases in the Project budget, matters related to the Project were not escalated within the Department to the appropriate level. It is also surprising that the Department did not appear to grasp the significant shift in the Project’s objectives that we outlined earlier.”
In a statement, the Arts Council said it “fully acknowledges the findings of the Expert Advisory Committee’s review and accepts its conclusions.
"The shortcomings identified should not have occurred, and we regret the impact this has had.”
Mr O'Donovan said transparency must underpin the council’s future operations.
"It is critically important that there is the greatest possible level of transparency regarding the factors that gave rise to such a significant loss of public funds. Equally, it is essential that we are clear about the steps that will be taken to prevent any recurrence of such failings in the Arts Council or in any other State Body.
"My Department will now engage directly with the Interim Director of the Arts Council and the Chair to ensure that the Arts Council is supported during this interim period, ahead of what will be significant change in the organisation. This will be important for the wider arts sector. My Department will also establish a robust oversight system to monitor implementation of the recommendations, details of which will be developed over the coming weeks."
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
