The Provost of the University of Limerick (UL) has apologised for the latest property-related controversy to engulf the institution.
The process for the purchase of the properties at Rhebogue, Co Limerick, “failed on a number of levels”, said Professor Shane Kilcommins.
UL has confirmed that it lost €5.2 million after paying inflated prices for 20 houses last year.
Prof Kilcommins told the Committee on Public Accounts (PAC) that multiple concerns had been expressed early in the process of purchasing the properties.
On 8 March 2022, “six weeks into the project”, the Director of Management Planning and Reporting sent a memo flagging concerns over “the public spending code, about ensuring there isn’t a premature commitment”.
“The Director of Building and Estates raised concerns. The university solicitor raised concerns,” he added.
Outside agencies added their reservations to those voiced by university staff, in the form of two reports, which were received on 23 March 2022.
But “the project continued to move forward”, the provost said.
“To anybody looking objectively at this, this is utter madness,” Labour TD Alan Kelly said of the approval process.
The “startling evidence” was straight out of “a soap opera or a mini-series” for Netflix, he suggested.
Long-standing concerns over governance
Concerns over governance issues at UL date back many years, said Prof Kilcommins, citing several reports, including one by Deloitte in 2015 and a 2017 programme by Prime Time.
The latest scandal follows an admission last year that the university had overpaid, by more than €3m, for a former Dunnes Stores site in Limerick city.
Prof Kilcommins said that, when UL bought the site on Sarsfield Bridge for €8m, there had been a feeling that there was “no policy or procedure in place”.
The proposal had come in late and no appraisal or due diligence had been done.
In contrast, for the purchase of properties in Rhebogue, Co Limerick, he said that controls had been put in place, along with a property acquisition policy which had executive sponsors charged with vetting purchases.
It had been done “in a way that was unusual”, with “informal meetings” called at short notice, where only draft minutes – which were never approved – were taken, the provost said.
The proposal had been delivered directly to the university’s Chief Corporate Officer by the developer on 24 January 2022. The contract was signed on 4 August, just eight months later.
“The Chief Corporate Officer’s title keeps coming up here,” Mr Kelly said. “Why isn’t he here?”
Prof Kilcommins said that he had picked “the team” which was “appropriate” to attend the session, but he accepted that the Chief Corporate Officer is “the executive sponsor of the project”.
John Kelly, the university’s corporate secretary, noted that when the executive committee had discussed the proposed purchase on 16 March 2022, only five of the 11 members had been present.
“The nature of the meeting and the matter of what was up for discussion” were “very unusual”, he added.
Chancellor Professor Brigid Laffan added that such “informal meetings” are “very exceptional in higher education”.
“I was six years in senior management at UCD, and nothing would have been progressed in this way.”
HEA ‘took eye off the ball’
From 2015, when there were successive reports flagging issues, Fianna Fáil TD Cormac Devlin asked why the Higher Education Authority (HEA) did not conclude that “there’s a problem in UL”.
Mr Devlin asked why the HEA did not act in 2015.
“I can’t talk to what they did in 2015, I can talk to what I did,” its CEO, Alan Wall, replied.
“At some level, you must have been aware of this transaction,” Verona Murphy said of the Rhebogue purchase.
She suggested that the HEA “took your eye off the ball”.
Mr Wall “emphatically” rejected the suggestion that the authority “didn’t inquire” into the planned purchase, insisting that there were “a number of engagements where we would have brought it up”.
But he conceded: “I am defensive about it to some extent. I can see how it looks.”
Prof Kilcommins apologised in his opening statement.
“There is sadness, and anger too, at the damage that the Rhebogue controversy has done to UL’s reputation.
“As the person leading today’s delegation, I want to say I am deeply sorry for what has happened.
“This acquisition should never have been allowed to progress.”
