Kildare Wicklow ETB under the spotlight.

evolving_doors

Oooooo the Kildare Wicklow ETB are in a bit of hot water. allegedly..

On RTE now

Company set up Ashton Engineering... couple of months later they get a contract after a few days of tendering.

Hold on ....the company was run by the son of the former Sean Ashe.
Sean Ashe was Chief Executive of KWETB.
Sean Ashe was the receiver of the tenders for the contract.
Just a coincidence though. I presume he declared a conflict of interest at some point.
Other son John ashe was also involved in the tendering as an employee of the KWETB.

KWETB rented an empty building.. allowed Ashton engineering to use for their company for 14 months rent free.

According to RTE investigates RTE1 tonight.

So if you ever go for a job with KWETB and are asked about being accountable to your students and parents:pac:

r93kaey5p2izun

Is anyone surprised?

The councillors on the board of that time have serious questions to answer too. Including Fine Gael, who removed the party whip from one of their councillors who asked too many awkward questions about irregularities in how council and ETB funds were being used.

ethical

All ETBs should be "cleaned"......end of! There are too many hangers on,parasitic individuals siphoning off the funds that are meant for providing education.There is a rotten Golden Circle that exists within........no morals exist,gobsh*tes,many of them.

Nancy1976

ethical wrote: »

All ETBs should be "cleaned"......end of! There are too many hangers on,parasitic individuals siphoning off the funds that are meant for providing education.There is a rotten Golden Circle that exists within........no morals exist,gobsh*tes,many of them.

It’s been alleged that this type of corruption is rampant in the ETB system. I know bullying is rampant. Have many ETB Staff experienced bullying? These Chief Executives seem to have huge power.

spurious

Interesting first post.

What evidence is there to suggest bullying is rampant in ETBs?

If you 'know' it's rampant, why are you asking if anyone has experienced it?

Here's one ETB person who didn't experience any bullying, rampant or otherwise, in almost thirty years.

Postgrad10

Bullying between staff happens in some shape or form in most schools not exclusively to the ETB. When you have a large groups of people with different personalities it happens. It's how management deal with it that makes the difference.

AndrewJRenko

evolving_doors wrote: »

Company set up Ashton Engineering... couple of months later they get a contract after a few days of tendering.

Hold on ....the company was run by the son of the former Sean Ashe.
Sean Ashe was Chief Executive of KWETB.
Sean Ashe was the receiver of the tenders for the contract.
Just a coincidence though. I presume he declared a conflict of interest at some point.
Other son John ashe was also involved in the tendering as an employee of the KWETB.

KWETB rented an empty building.. allowed Ashton engineering to use for their company for 14 months rent free.

The arrogance of it - they weren't even bothered to hide it.

There were questions about other contracts and other relatives too - including at least one very large school extension contract.

evolving_doors

Sean Ashe was also brought before the PAC about 4 years ago for other matters, but hey, whatcha gonna do about it.
He's retired now ... hope he makes ends meat.

Here's what he said a few years ago...From the examiner.

However, he accepted mistakes had been made.

“I do of course fully accept the point by the C&AG that the process must not just deliver value, but be demonstrably open and transparent.”

Mr Ashe said lessons had been learned and, particularly in relation to the purchase of IT services, changes had been made.

However, he told the committee, and earlier the C&AG, that tender files did exist but had just been misfiled. He said just because it could not source the documents to back up its procurement process did not mean the proper rules were not followed.

sandyxxx

evolving_doors wrote: »

Sean Ashe was also brought before the PAC about 4 years ago for other matters, but hey, whatcha gonna do about it.
He's retired now ... hope he makes ends meat.

Here's what he said a few years ago...From the examiner.

That was as CE of Kildare VEC
.....and subsequently he was appointed CEO of the newly established KWETB!!
Beggars belief in a way,but someone higher up made that call.

Nancy1976

spurious wrote: »

Interesting first post.

What evidence is there to suggest bullying is rampant in ETBs?

If you 'know' it's rampant, why are you asking if anyone has experienced it?

Here's one ETB person who didn't experience any bullying, rampant or otherwise, in almost thirty years.

I don’t think the mention of bullying is a particularly interesting angle to take. It is inconceivable to think that the level of corruption being exposed has been taken place without bullying. Kildare Wicklow ETB are just one example of an ETB that has been found wanting when placed in front of the PAC and Fiona Mc Loughlin certainly wasn’t embraced by either the Board or her fellow FG colleagues when she decided to speak up. I hope other people speak up now that the lid on the can of worms has been prised open slightly. There are always people within organizations who know of the improprieties in progress but they keep their heads down, fearing that they will be penalized or pushed out as a result. It’s a very justifiable fear. Others may keep quiet under threat. I’m very pleased to hear that you personally haven’t experienced anything like this but many have and many have felt the full force of ETB Chief Executives like the “powerful” and up until now, untouchable Sean Ashe.

rainbowtrout

Wasn't this flagged last year. I remember getting home and flicking on the news and just hearing '.... ETB are being investigated for financial irregularities' or something of that type.... and I was just waiting to see if it was mine! But it was KWETB referenced in the report.

spurious

Nancy1976 wrote: »

I don’t think the mention of bullying is a particularly interesting angle to take. It is inconceivable to think that the level of corruption being exposed has been taken place without bullying. Kildare Wicklow ETB are just one example of an ETB that has been found wanting when placed in front of the PAC and Fiona Mc Loughlin certainly wasn’t embraced by either the Board or her fellow FG colleagues when she decided to speak up. I hope other people speak up now that the lid on the can of worms has been prised open slightly. There are always people within organizations who know of the improprieties in progress but they keep their heads down, fearing that they will be penalized or pushed out as a result. It’s a very justifiable fear. Others may keep quiet under threat. I’m very pleased to hear that you personally haven’t experienced anything like this but many have and many have felt the full force of ETB Chief Executives like the “powerful” and up until now, untouchable Sean Ashe.

So it's not 'the ETB system' as you first stated? You were referring to Kildare and Wicklow?

keoclassic

Etb system = sheep trial championship.

C.E.O= Shepard.
Some Management = Sheep Dog.
Teachers= The sheep.

Ya......that sounds about right. Just to show how fu@ked up some of them are....in some cases the sheep and the sheepdogs and the shepards......are all blood related!!

Mardy Bum

sandyxxx wrote: »

evolving_doors wrote: »

Sean Ashe was also brought before the PAC about 4 years ago for other matters, but hey, whatcha gonna do about it.
He's retired now ... hope he makes ends meat.

Here's what he said a few years ago...From the examiner.

That was as CE of Kildare VEC
.....and subsequently he was appointed CEO of the newly established KWETB!!
Beggars belief in a way,but someone higher up made that call.

The people who get these jobs know where the bodies are buried. Happening all round the country. I'd say you could count the amount of useful ceo's on one hand. The good ones usual get moved about to clean up a mess.

SligoBrewer

As a model, ETBs seem like completely pointless middle management. If they were scrapped in the morning I wouldn't miss them.

evolving_doors

Mardy Bum wrote: »

The people who get these jobs know where the bodies are buried. Happening all round the country. I'd say you could count the amount of useful ceo's on one hand. The good ones usual get moved about to clean up a mess.

One FG councillor did try to shine a spotlight on it but she got directed to the pitch-side bench fairly fast.
https://villagemagazine.ie/index.php/2018/01/kwetb-under-investigation-by-fraud-squad-cag-and-hsa-is-not-the-only-scandal-in-kildare/