A report by forensic accountants into RTE’s use of off-balance-sheet accounts has identified “alarming gaps” in internal policies, procedures and controls, Ireland’s Media Minister Catherine Martin has said.
Ms Martin has published the interim report by forensic accountant Mazars, which she appointed to examine RTE’s use of a UK-based barter account for certain commercial transactions.
RTE has been reeling since revelations earlier in the summer that it misreported the salary paid to star presenter Ryan Tubridy and failed to properly disclose 345,000 euro (£296,000) of payments to him between 2017 and 2022.
Last week, new director general Kevin Bakhurst announced that Tubridy would not be returning to his weekday radio show.
The furore around the payments to Tubridy has become a wider crisis for the national broadcaster amid further disclosures about RTE’s internal financial, accounting and governance practices and its expenditure on corporate hospitality for advertising clients.
The forensic accountancy report by Mazars is one a series of probes commissioned into RTE in the wake of the controversy.
Barter accounts are commonplace in the media industry. They allow organisations to exchange advertising airtime that would otherwise go unsold in return for goods and services from companies.
RTE’s use of barter spending has come in for intense scrutiny since it emerged that the broadcaster paid 150,000 euro (£128,000) to Tubridy through one such account, as part of an undisclosed commercial arrangement with a sponsor.
RTE had also faced criticism for using barter transactions to spend hundreds of thousands of euro entertaining commercial clients, including on a trip to the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
Further contentious transactions included almost 5,000 euro (£4,300) on 200 pairs of flip-flops for a summer party for clients.
Mazars’ interim report has identified significant gaps in controls and record keeping.
Ms Martin published it following a meeting with Mr Bakhurst and the RTE board chair, Siun Ni Raghallaigh, at her department in Dublin.
It also found there was a lack of signed contracts between RTE and the barter media agencies used and that there was an absence of budgetary reporting for barter account purchases.
Ms Martin said: “The report from the forensic accountants again sets out alarming gaps in internal policies, procedures and controls that existed in RTE.”
Issues highlighted in the interim RTE report from forensic accountant Mazars include:
– An apparent lack of signed contracts between RTE and the barter media agencies used;
– No properly documented policy and procedures for use of the barter account and inadequate record keeping;
– An absence of budgetary reporting for barter account purchases;
– Goods or services acquired through the barter account outside RTE standard purchasing and procurement processes;
– No formal list of staff limiting who could make purchases through the barter account;
– No formal list of approvers for purchases.
Commenting on the findings, Ms Martin said: “This lack of properly documented policy and procedures for using the account, and an apparent lack of checks and controls over who used it, is not befitting a public service organisation, and cannot be repeated.”
Earlier, Mr Bakhurst said that RTE may have to consider compulsory redundancies “at some point” as the national broadcaster deals with massive reductions in TV licence purchases.
After the scandal rocked the broadcaster in June, there were 37,089 fewer licences purchased across eight weeks when compared directly with the numbers bought in the same period last year – representing a possible loss of 5.9 million euro (£5 million).
Speaking to reporters after a meeting with Minister Martin, Mr Bakhurst said RTE is “absolutely not considering compulsory redundancies at the moment” but added: “We may have to do that at some point.”
