So what is it about the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that it casts a spell of illness on those summoned to appear before it? The most recent example is that of the President of the University of Limerick, Kerstin Mey, who has submitted a sick cert to the PAC explaining her unavailability to answer questions.
Professor Mey had been summoned to explain a number of issues, one of which was a botched student housing project for which, it is now admitted, UL overpaid €5.2 million for 20 houses. The student houses had been bought by the university for €11 million, but were subsequently valued at €6 million, meaning that the university had overpaid €5 million.
Just how or why this happened remains, until now, a mystery, further compounded by the revelation that proper planning requirements had not been met in the development. The developer himself, wisely, has chosen to remain silent on the details of the property deal with which he is, no doubt, completely happy.
The debacle has caused turmoil within the university hierarchy, brought to a head when ten of the thirteen members of the executive committee – which is chaired by President Mey herself – passed a vote of no confidence in her leadership, calling on her to step down. In the interim, the Higher Education Authority has concluded that the university is not capable of managing capital projects and has sent in a team to clean up the financial and management controls. But, like Hamlet without the Prince, the PAC has been caught in a bind with Professor Mey on sick leave and, as she explained, unable to attend the April meeting of the Dail committee.
The bungled deal is not the first time for the University of Limerick to be caught offside in property dealing. Five years ago, under Professor Mey’s predecessor, UL paid €8 million to Dunnes Stores for a new campus site in the middle of Limerick city. The site was subsequently valued at just over €5 million, leaving UL with an impairment charge of €3 million in its accounts as a result of the foray. The then President moved on.
Universities seem especially prone to financial mismanagement, despite their reputation in training business leaders, inculcating prudent business practice in their graduates, and preparing the young and the bright for careers in financial mastery. The President of TUD (Technological University Dublin), David Fitzpatrick, announced this week that he was leaving to take up a new post in Malaysia. His departure comes as the HEA launches an enquiry into a budget deficit of €8.6 million in the university accounts, which prompted the academic staff at the college to confirm a vote of no confidence in the professor’s leadership.
But maybe we should not be too hard on the university sector, since profligacy in public spending is part of the Irish temperament. When, in 2022, the Irish Horse Regulatory Board was upbraided by the auditor general for paying its outgoing CEO €50,000 more than he was entitled to, nobody could give an explanation. And when the auditor general sought details of his contract, he was told that the only contract that could be found was that filed back in 1997.
“Either one doesn’t exist, or it’s not in our possession,” was the plaintive reply of the IRHB board. And when, in 2022, the auditor general discovered that €495 million was due back to the state for welfare overpayments, it hardly raised an eyebrow. The target, he was told, was to recover € 95million of the overpaid benefit annually from those who had defrauded the system. However, he noted drily in his report, “the target so far was not being met.”
OPINION: The strange illness of a PAC invitation
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11.04.2024
So what is it about the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that it casts a spell of illness on those summoned to appear before it? The most recent example is that of the President of the University of Limerick, Kerstin Mey, who has submitted a sick cert to the PAC explaining her unavailability to answer questions.
Professor Mey had been summoned to explain a number of issues, one of which was a botched student housing project for which, it is now admitted, UL overpaid €5.2 million for 20 houses. The student houses had been bought by the university for €11 million, but were subsequently valued at €6 million, meaning that the university had overpaid €5 million.
Just how or why this happened remains, until now, a mystery, further compounded by the revelation that proper planning requirements had not been met in the development. The developer himself, wisely, has chosen to remain silent on the........
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