UCC enquiry "inflammatory"

cork | rights, freedoms and repression | news report Thursday November 16, 2006 13:44 by Stuart

Process already brought into question

Professor Enda McDonagh, the Chairman of the Governing Body of UCC, has announced the identity and remit of the "external and independent" person to review allegations of "corruption", financial mismanagement and bullying at the university. In a move that seems destined to delay rather than supplant a formal enquiry, the remit is to exclude all issues that have already been put before the Governing Body and to include input from Professor Michael Shattock, a co-author of the OECD Report on Higher Education in ireland that is central to UCC's own restructuring plans (http://www.ucc.ie/en/restructuring/). The oversight of the review process by the very people either involved in, or investigating, the excluded allegations would appear to generate the potential for significant conflicts of interest.

http://www.indymedia.ie/article/78472 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/78749
http://www.ucc.ie/en/restructuring/ UCC Restructuring Plans
http://bb.ucc.ie/viewtopic.php?t=10297 Restructuring Discussion
http://www.geocities.com/stuartdneilson/UCC_Reference.htm UCC News Articles

An external and independent person appointed by UCC

Following discussions between Minister for Education and Science Mary Hanafin, the Higher Education Authority and representatives of the Governing Body at University College Cork, it was agreed that the university would be permitted to appoint its own choice of an "external and independent" person to review recent controversies that have received considerable public attention. Mary Hanafin has stated that "appointing a visitor at this stage would be taking the allegations too seriously" and that she hopes this lesser enquiry will "clear up" the issues.

The appointee has been announced as John Malone, a civil servant and former general secretary of the Department of Agriculture, with assistance from Michael Shattock, co-author of the OECD Report on Higher Education, and Jim Port, a British consultant.

Limited remit

The remit of the enquiry excludes the allegations already "considered" by the governing body, although it will include a review of the inquiry processes.

It has been claimed that this appointment and remit were agreed by the governing body after consultation with the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and Mary Hanafin, although the recommendation was made by Professor McDonagh who was subsequently unavailable for comment or discussion, saying that he would not be contactable "over the next day or so" and that no reply would be taken as consent.

Given the limitations of the remit, there should be little difficulty in producing an interim report within the tight timescale of 12th December.

Members of the Governing Body including Prof Clarke have expressed unhappiness with the appointment, the remit and the timescale, saying it does not excuse the government from its responsibility for a full and formal investigation with legal authority.

Previous investigation

It is worth revisiting the manner in which the allegations placed before the Governing Body have been previously "considered". Spokespeople from the Department of Education and UCC management have said that the HEA has previously found no merit in the allegations. Former Minister for Education Noel Dempsey stated quite explicitly that "I recently requested a comprehensive report from the Higher Education Authority which is now to hand. On the basis of this report and all the available supporting documentation, and having regard to the provisions of the Universities Act, I am satisfied that there is no basis for the appointment of a visitor to UCC" in July 2004.

The reality is far more circuitous, "many of the allegations made by Prof Des Clarke of financial mismanagement at UCC had been made before and it referred them to the HEA which in turn referred them to the UCC's governing body, which had found them to be groundless" [The Irish Times, 30 September 2006]. President Wrixon has said that "there isn’t a single instance where any of the allegations he has made have found the university has acted wrongly in any way" and that "these views have already been expressed to the governing body, Government ministers and State agencies, and been found to have no merit" and that he would not highlight all the "factual errors" in Prof Clarke’s letter - which, of course, is exactly what any competent enquiry would have done.

The Chief Executive of the HEA Tom Boland has written “I can confirm that the HEA has not carried out an inquiry into the allegations and any reports to the contrary are incorrect.” So how were the excluded allegations previously "investigated" or "considered"?

Conflict of interest

Rather surprisingly, according to Professor Clarke's open letter of 28 Sept 2006 "15. Statute I, Ch. iv provides that correspondence on behalf of the University is conducted under the direction of the President. Custom and practice, and the statutes that pertain to the post of the former Secretary & Bursar, required Mr. Kelleher to write officially on behalf of the GB to, for example, the HEA. When Rev. McDonagh and/or Professor Hyland [who since February 2004 was not even a member of the GB] met with the HEA executive and wrote to the HEA on behalf of the GB, did they act under your direction [which would seem like an obvious conflict of interest], or did they write without proper authorization, thereby subverting the statutory role of the Secretary to the GB?"

It seems somewhat surprising that Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology Enda McDonagh, Chairman of the Governing Body at UCC, widely regarded as a man of integrity and honesty, should place himself in a position where there is even the appearance of a conflict of interest. Yet he is the original investigator who dismissed the allegations and the individual appointing the "external and independent" reviewer, taking no response from his fellow governors as an acceptance of his decisions.

Serious allegations

The allegations that have previously been "considered" and dismissed by UCC's Governing Body are by no means trivial. Prof Clarke has claimed corruption in making appointments, breaches of the law, of university statutes and of regulations, intimidation and bullying of staff, concerns about the use of public monies and the university’s “unsustainable” debts and a general failure of governance. In addition to allegations of widespread bullying throughout the staff hierarchy, two senior administrative staff in UCC, along with a third who resigned recently, have made allegations of bullying and intimidation against President Wrixon and other senior executives.

Whilst this rumpus is bound to run on to UCC's detriment until a competent and transparent investigation provides an accountable response, it seems President Wrixon will be able to retire somewhat peacefully without having to account for his actions. The Irish Times in particular has provided a platform to spin Wrixon's views and deny any response. A paen to Wrixon's reputation from President Emeritus of the University of Limerick Ed Walsh contained poisonous remarks about former UCC President Michael Mortell, who demanded a full right of reply. The Irish Times refused, offering the opportunity to submit a letter to the editor, until the intervention of Readers' Representative Paul Gillespie forced the editorial hand.