RTÉ pay crisis: Forensic accountant to be selected this week

The selection of a forensic accountant to investigate the so-called barter account system in RTÉ is expected to be completed early this week, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has said.

The successful tenderer will initially be required to examine the barter account and any other “off balance sheet” accounts at the national broadcaster, though the scope of the work may be expanded over the duration of the assignment, it said.

The barter account system in RTÉ was used to make two €75,000 payments for the benefit of the presenter Ryan Tubridy, with the payments being issued by a media bartering company in London on foot of invoices that were approved by the then RTÉ director general, Dee Forbes, but which did not mention Tubridy.

More generally the account was used for paying entertainment and hospitality bills associated with the station’s commercial division and saw expenditure of €1.6 million over the past decade.

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Forensic accountants are specialists within the accountancy field who conduct focused investigations into particular aspects of a company or person’s financial affairs. They are often used in legal disputes and civil and criminal court proceedings and called as expert witnesses.

Those that engage forensic accounts usually provide them with stated terms of reference and give them broad powers of access to confidential information and the right to question staff.

The massive controversy that has engulfed RTÉ became public after the audit and risk committee of the RTÉ board commissioned forensic accountant Paul Jacobs of Grant Thornton to “ascertain the full circumstances and facts surrounding the [two €75,000] payments and the purpose for same”.

The board empowered Mr Jacobs to “consider all relevant available documentation, including without limitation commercial contracts, books of account, electronic documents and information and accounting systems, where relevant, and meet with relevant personnel, as necessary”.

During his work Mr Jacobs met Ms Forbes; the head of commercial at RTÉ, Geraldine O’Leary; Tubridy’s agent, Noel Kelly (who issued the invoice for “consultancy services” to RTÉ that Ms Forbes then approved for payment); the chief financial officer at RTÉ, Richard Collins – who introduced tighter controls on the barter account in early 2020; and a person who worked with Ms O’Leary.

A search of the RTÉ email system, using keywords, formed part of the investigation, which was directed at the finding of fact, determined on the balance of probabilities.

Mr Jacobs is a partner with Grant Thornton and the head of its forensic and investigation services. He has been working in the area of forensic investigation for more than two decades and, according to the Grant Thornton website, has given expert witness testimony on more than 25 occasions in the High Court in Ireland, England, the Netherlands, and the Channel Islands, as well as in arbitration proceedings.

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Recent investigation and accounting appointments include the Olympic Council of Ireland (in relation to ticketing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro), the Football Association of Ireland and being appointed Independent Financial Assessor in Labour Relations Commission industrial relations matters involving the electricity utility ESB, Aer Lingus, and the Irish postal service, and unions.

While auditors spend a few weeks going over a company’s annual accounts and conducting spot checks, forensic accountants “dig deeper” to answer the questions set out in their terms of reference, according to one accountant. “They are the rottweilers,” the accountant added.