An inquiry in Cycling Ireland has found the national governing body had excessive controls on spending in place during the same period it used false quotations when applying for grants from the Department of Sport.
Meanwhile, the national governing body is working on a series of changes to how the organisation is run and plans to present the outcome of that work to Cycling Ireland members later this year.
The finding about the excessive controls on expenditure was contained in the report compiled by KOSI, a consultancy firm specialising in governance and which previously examined the Football Association of Ireland (FAI).
The KOSI report into Cycling Ireland was commissioned by Sport Ireland after it emerged false quotations had been used twice in 2020 when Cycling Ireland was applying for grant funding.
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Quotations for the supply of products or services are
often included in applications for grants to support the case for the grant
being sought and to demonstrate professional procurement practices are in
place.
The issue of the false quotations being used first emerged in 2020 and grant funding that was provisionally approved was cancelled by the Department of Sport. The matter was then referred to the Garda for review in October 2020.
Cycling Ireland’s ability to apply for capital sports
grants was also suspended for 12 months. That means as well as the two grants
initially lost, other funding could not be applied for for a year.
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“Cycling Ireland believes that it has taken all necessary and proper steps to deal with the issue and to ensure no such issue can or will happen again,” the national governing body said in reply to queries from stickybottle.
It believed it had now resolved its issues with the Department of Sport, though it was still being “supervised” by Sport Ireland, with the findings of the KOSI report at that centre of that supervision.
According to Cycling Ireland, last month the board of the
national governing body decided to “retain legal and accountancy advisors to
review the structures of the company and the financial controls in place”.
This move is part of what Cycling Ireland said was a “root and branch overhaul of the governance of the company” and which will involve engagement with members of the national governing body. The “overhaul” is aimed at “presenting a revised constitution and structures to the membership later this year”.
Cycling Ireland also said it could not comment on the
individuals responsible for the false quotations being used in grant
applications because “to do so would, at a minimum, breach the rights of the
individuals concerned under GDPR”.
It added as an investigation carried out by a “third party
professional” had dealt with “individual employee issues”, Cycling Ireland “cannot
comment” on the detail of its conclusions.
It also said it had no reason to suspect any false
quotations had been used before the case that came to light in 2020 and that
what had happened had not been done for personal gain. It said there were “strict
controls” over spending in the organisation, confirming that one of the
findings of the KOSI report was “excessive oversight of expenditure”.
While there were no other investigations underway into
any other Cycling Ireland transactions or procurements, an “independent consultant”
was reviewing a sample of past procurement processes. The same person was also
set to review all procurement processes that will be carried out in 2022.
