Cianan Brennan: Report shows Forbes has questions to answer

Director general Kevin Bakhurst said that compulsory redundancies may need to be considered in RTÉ's future. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Reading over the Mazars interim report into RTÉ’s infamous barter account, one name keeps springing to mind — Dee Forbes.

The former director general may have been hung out to dry and then some at the Oireachtas committee hearings in July, but nevertheless what is detailed in the new report shows she has questions to answer.

Appointed in 2016 at the expense of one Kevin Bakhurst, Ms Forbes’ tenure was noteworthy for the begging bowl which was produced repeatedly before the Oireachtas, claiming that RTÉ was in a fight for financial survival.

Repeatedly, Ms Forbes told anyone who would listen that the licence fee was no longer fit for purpose.

Following the payments scandal, licence fee income is currently collapsing like an avalanche, understandably so given the wild west nature of RTÉ’s due diligence systems which have been so harshly exposed. Whether it was fit for purpose before, it certainly isn't now.

The Mazars report details an almost comical lack of oversight of the barter account at a corporate level within RTÉ.

No contracts were signed, there was no approved list of payment-authorisers, no commercial rationale for using the account was discovered, and no cap was placed on payments via the account.

Much has been made already of how RTÉ’s commercial division seemed unable to reconcile the fact that it worked for the taxpayer, not some corporate entertainment behemoth. This is moot to an extent though — if corporate dealings were run that badly in the private sector then heads would roll, that’s simple fact.

From what is now known, Dee Forbes was the only member of the board who knew the account — with its Rugby World Cup tickets, 5-star meals, and Havaianas flip flops — even existed, given her proximity to the €150,000 paid from the account to Ryan Tubridy and marked, rather misleadingly, as “consultancy fees”.

Whether she really was the only one who knew it all, the fact remains she was the director general in a period while elements within RTÉ behaved like a banana republic.

It must be acknowledged that some of the €1.2m detailed in the Mazars report which was spent on goods and services outside RTÉ’s standard procurement processes happened before Ms Forbes’ time. 

But what did she do to change this culture of unaccountability within the State broadcaster?

Why did she roll over backwards to guarantee that Ryan Tubridy wouldn’t be deprived of €225,000 while at the same time ensuring that so far as RTÉ’s junior staff and the bogus self-employed were concerned, pay cuts were the only show in town?

Did she think that the culture of deference to super-agent Noel Kelly was healthy? 

Given the uncertain nature of RTÉ’s future at present, with Mr Bakhurst confirming that compulsory redundancies are not entirely off the table, her period in charge may turn out to have been a major turning point.

Will she appear before the Oireachtas to answer for what she did and didn’t do at RTÉ? Would she be willing to accept responsibility for any of it? Only time will tell, we know Ms Forbes' health was an issue as the scandal unfolded in late June and early July. Perhaps she has now recovered sufficiently to answer some questions.

Without her testimony, a lot of very important matters will never be cleared up.