RTE should come under remit of Comptroller and Auditor General, says committee

RTE should be brought back under the statutory remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), a heavyweight parliamentary committee has recommended.

On Tuesday, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) launched 21 recommendations after investigating a series of controversies which engulfed the Irish national broadcaster last year.

Committee members described some of the recommendations as “common sense”, “basic” and “corporate governance 101”.

It has called for RTE to publish the salaries of staff earning more than 150,000 euros in its annual statements, and also those earning more than that sum upon their departure.

The committee recommended that future severance agreements do not contain any confidentiality clauses and they ensure that departing employees must co-operate with internal and external inquiries. It was unable to make findings against specific individuals.

Other recommendations include introducing a written policy in relation to negotiations with presenters and their representatives, ensuring no “side deals” are undertaken with employees or contractors, and developing a policy on promotional work undertaken by staff.

Irish premier Leo Varadkar has already said that placing RTE under the C&AG would be “a good idea”, adding that he hopes the Government will make a decision on that in the “next few weeks”.

The committee was tasked with examining the understatement of RTE’s highest-paid presenter Ryan Tubridy’s earnings, the national broadcaster’s use of barter accounts, executive pay and allowances, lack of oversight for the ill-fated Toy Show The Musical which accrued multimillion-euro losses, and other financial matters including loss of TV licence revenue.

At the launch of the recommendations, PAC chairman Brian Stanley heavily criticised the national broadcaster.

Mr Stanley said there were “common threads” of poor governance and a “general lack of transparency and accountability” to the board and minister.

He said: “Based on the evidence before it, the committee believes that decisions taken by RTE demonstrate a lack of rigorous financial controls, poor communication, little transparency and amount to a failure of governance which combined have damaged public trust in an organisation for which trust should be paramount.”

Mr Stanley also said the RTE board should have been more “vigilant, assertive and inquiring”.

The committee also recommended that all invoices issued by RTE be “clearly and accurately labelled”.

Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy said: “It should be bog standard that when you write an invoice, that it’s for the purpose that it’s intended.”

Green Party TD Marc O Cathasaigh added: “Some of the recommendations here are corporate governance 101.

“It shouldn’t be necessary to say invoices should clearly state what they’re actually for. It shouldn’t be necessary to say the audit and risk committee need to be properly resourced.”

Fianna Fail TD Paul McAuliffe said: “At the very heart of this is a failure of governance and financial controls across a series of projects.”

He said the committee had concluded that RTE had attempted to circumvent normal regulations and procedures and to conceal the purported underwriting of the contract and payments to Mr Tubridy.

Mr McAuliffe also said the committee felt that RTE had used its barter account as a slush fund, defined as a reserve of money held secretly by a company that has no accountability for its use.

He also said that the committee felt it had been misled by the broadcaster in relation to correspondence about Toy Show The Musical.

Elsewhere in the report, the committee said former chief financial officer Breda O’Keeffe’s refusal to attend “frustrated” its work in resolving conflicts in evidence.

Other persons of interest, including former director-general Dee Forbes, cited medical reasons for not attending the committee.

Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon said it was “hugely disappointing” that the committee was unable to receive evidence from key witnesses.

Sinn Fein TD Imelda Munster said RTE still had “a mountain to climb” in reforming the organisation.

She said senior officials appeared “answerable to nobody” and were “a law unto themselves”.

Last month, RTE board chairwoman Siun Ni Raghallaigh resigned during a dispute with Media Minister Catherine Martin and her department.

Mr Kelly said that the committee’s work had concluded prior to her departure but suggested an unofficial 22nd recommendation arising from those events would be that the Department of Media must take “proper” minutes and records of all meetings and phone calls.

The committee also noted that there is further work to examine, including RTE’s classification of certain workers as contractors which had PRSI implications.

It said this could cost the broadcaster tens of millions of euro and take more than 20 years to resolve.

Sinn Fein TD John Brady said hundreds of employees had their rights and entitlements denied.

The Government is expected to publish two independent expert reports into culture and governance at RTE this month.