No interview process for New Era director

Zamboni

The head of the National Treasury Management Agency, John Corrigan, has said no interview was held before the appointment of the director of New Era, the agency set up to oversee the sale of State assets.

Appearing before the Public Accounts Committee, Mr Corrigan said the director was transferred to the position from within the NTMA.

He was responding to a question from Independent TD Shane Ross, who asked why a person was not recruited from outside the NTMA.

Deputy Ross asked what qualifications did the director have in the sale of State assets. Mr Corrigan said the new director was "eminently qualified" to hold the position.

The agency's chief executive refused to divulge how much the director is being paid.

Mr Corrigan said Deputy Ross's criticism in the Dáil and in his newspaper column was source of great disquiet to him.

He said it was a strength of the NTMA that they had an internal candidate who could fill this position.

Mr Corrigan also told the committee that the mark to market losses on the capital put into Bank of Ireland was 27%. The mark to market losses on the capital put into AIB was much bigger at 55%.

He said he expected that would improve by the end of December this year.

The NTMA has recovered €1.1bn from Bank of Ireland, having spent €4.8bn, and estimates its value at €2.4bn.

The agency has received €100m back from AIB, having spent €16.1bn, and estimates its value at €7.2bn.

Mr Corrigan said he envisages a phased re-engagement with the markets before fully resuming with normal debt raising obligations.

Mr Corrigan said, despite being out of the markets for the moment, his officials have maintained a strong relationship with investors and have met with over 200 investor institutions since March.

He said the message coming from investors is that key criteria must be met before they invest.

He listed them as: continuing to hit the Troika targets, the successful recapitalisation of the banks, progress on bank deleveraging, the further sale of NAMA assets and EU action on the wider EU problem.

The volume of transactions done within the funding and debt unit of the NTMA was €1.2 trillion last year.

Mr Corrigan said there is a huge volume of work involving the markets, and he assured members of the Public Accounts Committee that the 12 staff at the funding and debt unit are working hard.

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/1006/ntma.html

Apologies if this has been posted already.
It is the same old story here and I commend Shane Ross for asking the question he did.
Jobs for the boyo's, no disclosure of directors salary etc.
Will we ever get out of this cowboy mentality?

More here
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/1006/1224305330111.html

Riskymove

Zamboni wrote: »

It is the same old story here and I commend Shane Ross for asking the question he did.
Jobs for the boyo's, no disclosure of directors salary etc.
Will we ever get out of this cowboy mentality?

I'm not so sure

The Government gave the NTMA responsibility for the New ERA Project and they then appointed one of their senior personnel to oversee it

Would you rather they hired extra people they did not need?

Zamboni

Riskymove wrote: »

I'm not so sure

The Government gave the NTMA responsibility for the New ERA Project and they then appointed one of their senior personnel to oversee it

Would you rather they hired extra people they did not need?

She came from AIB Investments and was involved in the Pensions Reserve in the NTMA.
There does not appear to be any experience of state asset disposal in her cv and at the very least the NTMA could have given people, with actual expertise in state asset disposal, a chance of an interview process, no?

Riskymove

Zamboni wrote: »

She came from AIB Investments and was involved in the Pensions Reserve in the NTMA.
There does not appear to be any experience of state asset disposal in her cv and at the very least the NTMA could have given people, with actual expertise in state asset disposal, a chance of an interview process, no?

it depends on the role....is she CEO tasked with overseeing high-level operations? then experience and skills are different.

Id doubt any one person will be making the decision to sell a particular state asset

I see no need to hire an extra person on a six-figure salary if she can do this role!

Zamboni

Riskymove wrote: »

it depends on the role....is she CEO tasked with overseeing high-level operations? then experience and skills are different.

Id doubt any one person will be making the decision to sell a particular state asset

I see no need to hire an extra person on a six-figure salary if she can do this role!

A six figure salary will be meaningless if she balls it up due to lack of experience!

Riskymove

Zamboni wrote: »

A six figure salary will be meaningless if she balls it up due to lack of experience!

all the Banks had very experienced people in charge over last decade!!

SBWife

If they were hiring from outside a person with purely buy side asset management experience wouldn't even get an interview. The job calls for experience in valuation, negotiation and structuring of transactions at the very least. The individual who has been given the role has legitimate experience in just one of these areas. If an internal candidate had a more wide ranging career and had worked in several different finance areas for international organisations I would have no issue with one being placed in the position BUT the individual in question has spent the bulk of her career at a discredited Irish bank.

Jaysoose

SBWife wrote: »

If they were hiring from outside a person with purely buy side asset management experience wouldn't even get an interview. The job calls for experience in valuation, negotiation and structuring of transactions at the very least. The individual who has been given the role has legitimate experience in just one of these areas. If an internal candidate had a more wide ranging career and had worked in several different finance areas for international organisations I would have no issue with one being placed in the position BUT the individual in question has spent the bulk of her career at a discredited Irish bank.

This should be enough to suggest that maybe looking outside this bunch of senior and qualified people that managed to bring a bank to its knees would be the correct way to go.

But its ireland the same people are still in place in the banks and the dept of finance and we are meant to believe that they are emminently qualified?

Its very much Jobs for the Boys.

Head The Wall

Riskymove wrote: »

I see no need to hire an extra person on a six-figure salary if she can do this role!

What happened to her previous role, has someone else been hired to replace her at a cost. If there hasn't been then she should have been made redundant.

SBWife

Jaysoose - The individual in question worked for the asset management division and was not involved in the property lending excesses that led to the situation the bank is currently in. I don't think it's reasonable to disqualify everyone who worked for these institutions from all NTMA and other state posts just by virtue of who their previous employers were. It really brings down the level of discourse when there are other more relevant matters to consider.

Jaysoose

SBWife wrote: »

Jaysoose - The individual in question worked for the asset management division and was not involved in the property lending excesses that led to the situation the bank is currently in. I don't think it's reasonable to disqualify everyone who worked for these institutions from all NTMA and other state posts just by virtue of who their previous employers were. It really brings down the level of discourse when there are other more relevant matters to consider.

So she is emminently qualified to oversee the sale of property/assets for nama why exactly? It is not reasonable to disqualify everybody from these organisations but at the same time is it best practice to not even interview outside candidates?

I for one am sick of these spoofers looking after themselves while the rest of us struggle and see this continuous manipulation of state bodies so they can sort their friends out with jobs on boards of quangos.

SBWife

Jaysoose wrote: »

So she is emminently qualified to oversee the sale of property/assets for nama why exactly?

Read my posts, please. I stated that she wouldn't even get an interview if she had been an external candidate and that she has but one of the key skills required for the position. I believe this should be the focus of the discussion not the fact that she spent the majority of her career at AIB.

Jaysoose

SBWife wrote: »

Read my posts, please. I stated that she wouldn't even get an interview if she had been an external candidate and that she has but one of the key skills required for the position. I believe this should be the focus of the discussion not the fact that she spent the majority of her career at AIB.

The simple fact is she did work for AIB and she does not have a background in property so why is she deemed emminently qualified and the usual interview process ignored?

SBWife

Jaysoose wrote: »

The simple fact is she did work for AIB and she does not have a background in property so why is she deemed emminently qualified and the usual interview process ignored?

I don't think she's qualified and didn't say so - I said she shouldn't even have gotten an interview.

It's also important to remember that much of what's on the table isn't property per se it's semi state operating companies. I'd like an individual with significant international corporate finance experience in the position but it's unlikely that the NTMA would be able or politically willing to pay the salary that hiring such an individual would entail.

n900guy

SBWife wrote: »

....The job calls for experience in valuation, negotiation and structuring of transactions at the very least.

That rules out every person who's worked in the banking, finance ande development and property sectors in ireland for the last 15 years.

Unless of course "bad" experience is what we want.


Profile:
- Started in May 1987 with Montgomery Govett Investment Managers, as an equity asset manager.
- Joined AIBIM in 1988, initially managing UK equities, before being appointed to the position of Head of International Equity Investment.
- In 1993 moved to NCB Stockbrokers to work in their International Equity Sales Area. Recruited from there to head up the International Equity Sales Division of Goodbody Stockbrokers in 1995.
- Rejoined AIBIM in 1996 as Deputy Investment Director with responsibility for International Equities, and in 1997 appointed Investment Director. In April 2000 appointed as Managing Director and CIO of AIBIM.

She's been working inside AIB for so long, and AIB suck so much, that she is likely the very last type of person we need. Incidently, it also seems that she moved to management finance bollockery a year after finishing her PhD in chemistry. 20 years of experience in an insitution that has bankrupted the country. GO.

SBWife

n900guy - The individuals who sold eircom the first time round did a pretty good job, no question they got the state a premium price for the asset. Pity the only way they could do this was by selling a series of tall tales to the citizens who were persuaded to purchase the shares.

There are other individuals that are pretty well qualified as well - I can think of one group of gentlemen who sold their company to the some descendents of North Atlantic fishermen at the height of the boom only to buy it back again several years later at a fraction of the original price.

AlekSmart

Jaysoose wrote: »

So she is emminently qualified to oversee the sale of property/assets for nama why exactly? It is not reasonable to disqualify everybody from these organisations but at the same time is it best practice to not even interview outside candidates?

I for one am sick of these spoofers looking after themselves while the rest of us struggle and see this continuous manipulation of state bodies so they can sort their friends out with jobs on boards of quangos.

A big +1 to that Jaysoose.

This post,to my mind,is not about the person or indeed the agencies involved but rather it is entirely focused on whether our Political Leaders have grasped the thorny concept of Transparency and even more so,Accountability.

Deputy Ross asked what qualifications did the director have in the sale of State assets. Mr Corrigan said the new director was "eminently qualified" to hold the position.

The agency's chief executive refused to divulge how much the director is being paid.

Mr Corrigan said Deputy Ross's criticism in the Dáil and in his newspaper column was source of great disquiet to him.

He said it was a strength of the NTMA that they had an internal candidate who could fill this position.

I,for one have some issue with Mr Corrigan,whose salary I personally contribute to,expressing anything other than a cooperative response to questions from a duly elected member of Dáil Éireann.

I cannot see any impropriety in Deputy Ross's line of questioning,except perhaps,that it continues his rather unpalatable (to some) pulling at threads which protrude from the State Cloak of Secrecy within which NAMA (and its satellites) are shrouded.

We have had far too much of this "Commercially Sensitive" stuff placed in front of us when answers are sought from Top-Level people involved in Ireland Teo,going all the way back to Brian Lenihans 2008 "house party" with the Irish Banking Elite from which Mr Corrigans position ultimately developed.

Surely then,Mr Corrigans level of "Great Disquiet" at this democratic expression of interest now makes it preferable that HE considers his own position ?

MadsL

Will New Era fall under FOI legislation?

Hmmm...



The agency has received €100m back from AIB, having spent €16.1bn, and estimates its value at €7.2bn. :eek:

Wtf? Change down the back of the sofa???

Scofflaw

But, but...she's a member of Riverview! She must be alright!

cordially,
Scofflaw