RTÉ admits an overrun of almost €1m on another IT system budget at Oireachtas committee

Irish Independent

3 days ago

RTÉ representatives, including the director general Kevin Bakhurst, appeared before the Oireachtas Media Committee where they were quizzed on a failed IT system that resulted in a €3.6m write down.
However, the committee was told there was another IT project, this time a channel management system (CMS), that went over budget by €900,000.
The revelation came in an answer to Social Democrats TD Sinead Gibney, who asked were there other IT systems that ran into issues.
In response, RTÉ's chief financial officer Mari Hurley said that the CMS had gone over budget.
'I conducted the exercise in terms of reviewing projects greater than €500,000 since 2020. There was one additional project, which went on the list to the department [of media], which was a channel management system,' Ms Hurley said.
'If you compare its spend, relative to its initial budget, it overran by €900,000.'
Ms Hurley also told the committee that this resulted in an impairment taken in 2019 of €390,000.
The CMS is now in use, Mr Bakhurst told committee members.
In a statement to the Irish Independent, RTÉ said 'the replacement of RTÉ's channel management system project – an important strategic project – is one of the projects that was funded from the proceeds of RTÉ's land sale in 2017'.
The national broadcaster said during the testing stages of the project in 2019, a number of issues came to light that could not be resolved by the appointed vendor.
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As a result, RTÉ decided to terminate the contract with the vendor in December 2019 which resulted in the €390,000 write off.
RTÉ confirmed that before work on the project began, a 'competitive public procurement process' took place.
When the contract for vendor one was terminated, the project was then awarded to the second vendor to complete the project.
'The overrun on the CMS project of €900,000 was due to vendor two being more expensive and the delays due to the above issues,' RTÉ said.
'However, this project was one of 39 capital projects completed or being implemented by RTÉ since January 2020 costing a total of c.€57m and with a total variance to the initial budget approved of less than €0.5m.'
Speaking after the committee hearing, Ms Gibney said it was 'simply not good enough for these financial matters to be merely noted in RTÉ's accounts' and that issues like this 'should be highlighted with the government'.
She added: 'Just weeks after it emerged RTÉ had to write-down €3.6m due to a partly failed IT project, we learn today of another waste of money at the station in recent years.
'It is particularly shocking this matter has only come to light now, given management's pledge to oversee a new culture of transparency and accountability at RTÉ following a litany of controversies, which have undermined public confidence in the broadcaster.'
It comes as disgruntled former RTÉ employees wrote to the committee with concerns on bogus self-employment and religious content they wanted politicians to raise.
The former employees outlined their concerns and issues with the broadcaster in the hopes politicians would raise them with RTÉ top brass.
This correspondence meant committee chair Alan Kelly had to issue an additional warning at the start of the meeting, saying politicians were not to identify any individuals or entities during the meeting.
'I'd like to remind all members that the names of individuals or identifiable entities or any personal information relating to them should not be discussed publicly in today's session. If it strays into that, unfortunately I will have to intercept and ask you to desist,' he said.
However, some of the correspondence was rejected by the committee after it sought legal advice.
TDs and senators on the committee decided to reject some of the letters as they included possibly defamatory statements.
Some of the former employees are caught up in legal cases with the broadcaster.
During the committee hearing, Mr Bakhurst said he was 'infuriated' by the coverage of the promotional video for RTÉ news and current affairs.
It was reported that RTÉ staff were angry at a number of issues, including the use of extras in the video who acted as journalists in the newsroom.
In response to a question from Fianna Fáil TD Peter 'Chap' Cleere, Mr Bakhurst said that 'a significant amount of the press coverage has been totally inaccurate about it'.
He added that two plants were taken from somewhere else in RTÉ for shooting the video and were used to cover up electrical points.