Kenneth Fox
Forensic accountants are to be given more scope to examine RTÉ’s use of a barter account, particularly its establishment and its governance.
Minister for Media, Catherine Martin is to appear before an Oireachtas committee on Wednesday and will tell TDs and senators she is expanding the terms of reference of the forensic accountants, Mazars, to allow it to examine:
- Whether appropriate processes and procedures were followed in relation to the approval and operation of the barter account when it was established in 2012;
- The role of the executive board and board of RTÉ as regards the governance of the barter account in the period 2017 to 2022;
- Whether, and if not, why not, the internal audit function in RTÉ, the audit and risk committee of the board of RTÉ, and RTÉ’s external auditor examined or queried the barter account in 2017-2022.
As the Irish Examiner reports, the initial terms of reference only allowed for a look back to 2017 but experts want to specifically examine its setup in 2012.
Ms Martin will tell the committee she is making the move on foot of a request by the expert advisory committee on governance and culture, part of the independent review team tasked with examining the books at the broadcaster following the damaging disclosures which revealed governance failings at RTÉ.
Ms Martin previously said the interim report into the so-called slush fund has identified "alarming gaps" in internal policies, procedures, and controls.
She expects the extra work to be completed by the end of November.
The barter account was used to pay hundreds of thousands of euro on hospitality and entertainment, including flights to sporting events, match and concert tickets, hotel stays, and lavish dinners in top restaurants.
It was also revealed that €4,956 was spent on flip-flops.
The barter account was also used to pay out two €75,000 top-ups to Ryan Tubridy after RTÉ facilitated and underwrote a commercial agreement between the presenter and Renault.
Accountants Mazars also revealed that of the €7.4 million in advertising revenue generated through the barter account, €1.2 million was spent on goods and services which were "outside of RTÉ's standard purchasing and procurement processes", and so internal controls and approvals processes were not followed.
