THE HIGHER Education Authority (HEA) will today begin the process of withholding funds from University College Dublin in the dispute over “unauthorised’’ payments to senior academics.
The board of the authority is set to sanction the claw back of funds, requested by chief executive Tom Boland, when it meets today.
The move is set to intensify the increasingly bitter dispute between the authority and UCD.
Last month, UCD president Dr Hugh Brady said any move to penalise the university would be “inappropriate, counter-productive and of dubious legality”.
It would, he says, also be discriminatory as disputed payments were also made to staff in DCU and UCC.
UCD says the additional payments were necessary to incentivise “academic leaders” to take up senior positions; were “non-gratuitous” and were funded from non-exchequer income.
The authority, the Department of Education and the Department of Finance all back sanctions against UCD.
In a letter to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee last month, Mr Boland wrote “the best and most effective way in which the issue may be addressed is through reductions in the annual grant allocation to the universities.’’
The authority says the disputed allowances were paid over several years without the approval of the authority, despite legislation stipulating approval must be sought.
Mr Boland told the Dáil committee he believed the largest amount in one year (€1.2 million) had been paid out by UCD, with similar, unauthorised payments paid in other institutions.
In total, the authority intends to withhold about €4 million, the total paid in unauthorised allowances between 2004 and 2009, when the practice was ended.
The authority says the eventual use of any funds which would be clawed back from the universities would be a matter for the Department of Education, the Department of Finance and the authority’s board.
The Comptroller and Auditor General reported last year that €1.6 million was paid in alleged unlawful allowances by UCD.
A further €266,000 was paid in performance bonuses between 2005 and 2008 shared between 12 people.
At a Dáil committee last September there was a major conflict of evidence between Mr Boland and Dr Brady on whether UCD knew it was not allowed to make extra payments to senior staff.
When pressed on why the authority had not put more pressure on UCD, Mr Boland asked: “What part of ‘no’ does UCD not understand?”
UCD claims the authority raised no question about the allowances, which were disclosed in 1999.
A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General details five-figure sums paid as allowances to more than 80 other staff in UCD.
Five vice-presidents, four college principals, 13 college vice-principals, 41 heads of schools and 18 directors of institutes received allowances of €15,000 to €25,000.
