Sinn Féin’s media spokesperson Imelda Munster has said that the former director general of RTÉ Dee Forbes, along with the current financial officer and the former financial officer, all need to appear before Oireachtas committees to explain the details that emerged in the Grant Thornton report published this week.
Ms Munster is a member of both the Oireachtas Media Committee and the Public Accounts Committee.
The Grant Thornton report was very clear, she told Newstalk Breakfast. It showed that those involved in the decision to understate Ryan Tubridy’s salary were “engaging in a type of process to deceive and mislead".
“They actually ignored their own payroll system. They then went on to publish figures that they knew were incorrect, and they published those figures to both put them in the public domain and publish those figures and gave those figures to the committee.
“It doesn't get more serious than that. You have desperately poor governance is the only way you can describe it. Absolutely no oversight. And it appears that there was an attitude, and we got the assurance in the committee hearing, amongst top management that they were a law unto themselves and accountable to nobody.
“The Grant Thornton report was very clear when it said that those adjustments were not sound accountancy practice and that it should never have happened.”
Ms Munster said that the public needed to know where the (then) director general was “during all this”. Also, where were the remuneration committee and why was the chief commercial officer allowed to publish a letter with the incorrect figures.
“We need to speak the former finance officer. We need to have the current finance officer, the director of content and the auditor from Deloitte. We need to have them before the committee to establish the facts.”
Ms Munster pointed out that during the hearings before the Oireachtas committees the chief financial officer had repeatedly said he was not aware of what had happened. How could he not be aware, she asked. This indicated a lack of oversight and the former financial officer had a lot of questions to answer.
“That's why you need all of them before the Public Accounts Committee and indeed the Media Committee. There has to be a political examination of the overall financial situation and those practices that were carried out.
“They just appeared to be a law unto themselves and accountable to nobody. And, you know, if ever public confidence is to recover or to be restored in order to lead, people want to see that those responsible are held to account and more importantly, also are equally important. We want to see proper procedures and practices put in place or make sure that something like that can never happen again.”
Ms Munster added that those at the top management executive board of RTÉ were accountable for spending public monies and accountable for the public purse, “and they failed dismally".
