Kathy Masterson
CLOSE to €30,000 in tuition fees was misappropriated by a member of staff at the Limerick College of Further Education in 2012, according to a financial report published recently by the Limerick and Clare Education and Training Board (LCETB).
The City of Limerick VEC (Vocational Education Committee), which was absorbed into the merged LCETB in June 2013, wrote in its financial statement for 2012 that “in May 2013 an irregularity in relation to tuition fees at the VEC’s College of Further Education was discovered”.
A statement written by the then LCETB chairperson, former city councillor Denis McCarthy, in July of this year said: “The matter was investigated and it was identified that tuition fees to the amount of €29,928 had been misappropriated.
“The ETB reported the matter to An Garda Síochána and to the Department of Education and Skills. It has revised the control process in relation to tuition fees.”
The Board is seeking to recover the funds misappropriated from the staff member and from the VEC’s insurer.
The staff member concerned has since resigned and at the time the report was compiled in July, had so far repaid €400 by weekly installments.
Cllr McCarthy’s statement concluded: “City of Limerick VEC has begun the process of establishing a formal risk management system involving procedures for identifying and evaluating all risks which could prevent the VEC achieving the objectives in its Education Plan.”
