Not a good look. I wonder did he go because this was going to come to light?
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Marty's hope is not misplaced. His part in this debacle will be forgotten about in a week, unless the media keep after him, and I can't see that happening with all his connections.
Exactly. It really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that the "Interim Leadership Team" would contain some people from the old team. The fact is that the organisation has to keep going thought all this. It would be total madness to just get rid of the entire executive team in one go on your first day in the job, having only had a couple weeks at most to source replacements for them. Even Elon Musk didn't fires all the executives when he took over Twitter (he fired some, and others did leave of their own accord, but it left the place in a shambles). Bakhurst clearly stated his plan before he began - an interim team now to keep things going, followed by a permanent change later when he's had the chance to figure things out.
Its been uncovered under the current CFO though. His main job is to oversee the incomings and outgoings.
It's gross incompetence, no other way to look at it.
Seems to be that if he’s not cracking down on free goodies for ‘brand ambassadors’ he’s not cracking down on his buddy Marty. I’d argue that his assertion that there was no net cost or loss to RTE is BS. They have lost because it’s yet another chink in their reputation. He’s basically said whatever the employees get up to in their spare time is fine, even if it doesn’t look good. I don’t care what changes happen. Unless the place is razed RTE will always now be a reoutationalky damaged organisation in my mind.
Off course they will..........all in the name of their idea of public broadcasting! 😉
Is/was Jennings not in hospital for a procedure that was scheduled for some time?
Not a great start to cleaning up the organisation. There are still lots of questions to be answered over Marty's ad hoc arrangements. Marty himself has still not clarified the tax situation on the benefits he received or if he handed invoices to Renault for payment and tax purposes. Marty is probably hoping it will all blow over.
This is a big pice of news in itself as we haven't seen nor heard from Jennings yet.
What we do know now is that all parties with direct knowledge of the payments (Forbes, Collins, O'Leary, and Jennings) BEFORE the board were notified are effectively gone. They've all been removed from the Exec. Board, I suspect all will be gone completely in the coming weeks.
I'm no fan of how things were done in RTE (I think that's obvious), but Bakhurst has made a strong start on this front.
That said, he then completely undermined himself with his stance on Marty Morrissey.
Did he not say that this is an interim arrangement?
So Kevin Bakhurst is friendly with Marty. Is this why Marty was allowed on air over the weekend?
The last of the famous international toymen.
Yeah, it's worked out pretty well for Renault hasn't it? How smart do those people look now?
The issue with any celebrity endorsement is you risk being tainted by the association if/when things turn sour.
Do you think Renault are in a better place from a brand mage perspective now in this country than they were 3 weeks ago? I can assure you they're not. A low cost freebie/loan has cost them incalculable damage from a brand perspective, not to mention the Renault association with Tubs and TLLS etc.
It's not as simple as you think it is.
So who do you need to know to get on the new Board ? 😉
Heaven Knows he’s Miserable Now.
Are you a CFO? Does a CFO go through every line item on the books? Or do they employ others including auditors to do it?
Regards uncovering the payments, can I ask, if the barter account had continued as previous, off the books, would the payments to Tubridy have ever been uncovered? When was the first year the barter account was audited by external auditors?
Do you agree O'Keefe has huge questions to answer re auditing the barter account? And inaccurate auditing of RTE books for years?
Its not Collins job as CFO to go through line items. There was a payment to NKM for consultancy services. Collins has said he should have queried it, but then again, was he party to all the deals, talks and negotiations with NKM?
Like I said, I blame O'Keefe, Forbes and GOL for years of concealment of the barter account. I credit Collins for bringing the barter account onto the books to be properly audited as without that, the payment to Tubridy would probably never have been uncovered. And yes he didn't properly question what the payment was, the auditor did that, but bringing the barter account into audits was important. So he gets a 50% grade for that. Unlike O'Keefe who gets a 0% grade.
And nothing personal but I'd imagine RTE is a far bigger organisation than yours.
My God The Guardian has it too!
Telegraph too!
Independent also showing "anti-Auntie bias"
The 'junkets' would have been viewed as industry practice anyone with links to sponsors get free tickets for lunches/sporting events etc. None of that surprised me. That is why there is corporate boxes in big stadiums.
What did though, was the lack of oversight on it (as you said) and how those barter accounts etc were known to only a 'select few'.
I'm not.
With respect, I work at Director Level. I know what I'm talking about here.
The CFO has ultimate responsibility for Financial Governance of the organisation. The buck ultimately stops with him. Have I said the previous CFO was exempt from blame? No. But she's no longer part of RTE. Collins is in the firing line I'm afraid on this one.
It's his job to find these things out, not just keep accounts.
He firstly failed to uncover the payments. When they were subsequently brought to his attention by the auditors he went to Forbes for answers. He got a wishy washy answer from her - again, it's his job here to get the answers that are required - and he took her word for it that it's all grand. The auditors then went above both of them on it. He was asleep at the wheel so to speak.
Look I don't want to sound like it's personal because it's not - I don't know the guy from Adam, but he's in big rouble for this role in this. He really is. I spoke to my own company's CFO about this and he was absolutely damning in his assessment of Collins.
I can't stress this enough - it's his job to uncover any financial irregularity in the company. He failed to do so - and failed spectacularly at it. And then he had the disastrous appearances before the Oireachtas committees. His position is completely untenable.
An anti BBC story in the Daily Mail, Shocker ! , needless to say the actual facts paint a very different story .
Back to RTE , I thought Kevin Bathurst gave a very good interview until we got to Marty.
Disclosing that he is very good friends with Marty was important, but his explaination that Marty was a different case to Tubs on the basis that there was no loss to RTE is setting a dangerous precedent.
No loss , net zero outcome both have the same meaning.
For optics alone Marty should not have been on the air this weekend.
I am sure the words have been noted by the legal representatIves of NK and Tubs.
If only I had that level of power and influence we wouldn't be where we are so to speak.
Both were used by Forbes who is primarily to blame from the RTE side of things. The DG appears to have dictatorial power, at least Forbes did. Collins should have asked tougher questions. But he came into a rotten, corrupt organisation where lying and concealment is part of the culture, and it was difficult to get straight answers from a bunch of liars.
The primary blame is with those who drew up the fake invoices or submitted them.
Yep, I remember reading threads about him on there back then, all more or less the same as that one.
Or even to go from one station to other. He brought his Radio 1 show to 2fm to replace the Gerry Ryan Show. It started hermerging listeners right from the off, but he couldn't adapt. His show when he began wasn't all that different to the show when he left to return to the safety of RTE Radio 1 five years later. He lost 40% of Ryan's audience in the process though, something 2fm never recovered from.
OK I misread an article on that one, its negotiated separately with 6% increase over 2 years negotiated last year.
And of course the Savage eye some of the best content RTE ever showed has been taken off the player and is now unsearchable except for clips already uploaded to YouTube. For some reason RTE don't see fit to do reruns of this like they do with Killnaskully et al.
Mcsavage was born into the golden circle but he savaged all the nepotistic links that everyone else took advantage of
i'd love to see O'Leary and or Collins properly reprimanded.. its actually disgusting what she was at..
Try this
Current CFO getting the blame for all the shady shite that went on when the old CFO was in place and buried her head and let it go on
why didn’t the old CFO let the auditors check what was going on in these accounts and why did she allow the junkets without saying anything?
They didn't. RTE staff pay is negotiated independently between RTE management and RTÉ Trade Union Group that comprises of the various unions that represent the staff. It's completely separate from the Public Service pay negotiations.
Admit it @ButtersSuki
you are Kevin
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