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RTÉ HAS CONFIRMED that it was forced to write-down €3.6 million on a partly failed IT system.
Details of the write-down were published this evening by The Currency and later confirmed by RTÉ.
The IT system, which had been intended to replace its finance and HR systems, was funded from the proceeds of the sale of around nine acres of land at its Donnybrook campus.
In a statement this evening, RTÉ said the “purpose of the IT system was to replace five legacy systems that were used for Finance and HR which were at or near end of life”.
One of them had been installed in 2001, while another two were installed in 2003.
The Currency reported that details of the write-down were relayed to the Department of Arts and Media last month.
This was in response to a request sent to all agencies under the Department’s remit to provide details of capital projects which cost more than €500,000 and were either abandoned or materially failed to deliver.
RTÉ said that the contract for the new IT system followed an “extensive public procurement process in 2018” and that two suppliers were appointed to the project.
It added that it chose the tender which was the cheapest proposal and that “it was considered that this proposal would be the most economically advantageous to RTÉ”.
However, RTÉ said that “issues arose almost immediately” and that by January 2019, the project was already behind schedule.
RTÉ pointed to “resource constraints” within the public broadcaster and added that the “build quality of the product in testing did not meet expectations and over-ambitious timelines”.
RTÉ added that this was all “compounded with the outbreak of Covid-19”.
The contract was terminated but restarted in August 2022.
In March 2023, the new finance system went live but the HR elements were not delivered.
RTÉ said that the “majority of the impairment relates to the effort to deliver the HR part of the project, amounting to €2.3m”.
It added: “The remaining €1.3m related to the delay and effort in delivering the finance element of the project.”
The broadcaster added that this “impairment is very much an exception in the context of extensive projects delivered annually by RTÉ”.
RTÉ also remarked that “corporate governance reforms introduced over the past 18 months are designed to mitigate against the risk of recurrence of such issues”.
A Department spokesperson told The Currency that Minister P atrick O’Donovan met with the RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst on 8 April to discuss “the background to the project and the reasons for the failure to deliver on the original scope of the project”.
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Why are Rte constantly on tax payer + to license life support? In the best interest of Ireland they should be set adrift as a private commercial entity. Rip the bandaid off and let them try survive on their own like every other business.
@Jack: RTE is the propaganda wing of the FFG parties … they are all in bed together, covering each others crimes and the only ones being screwed are the Irish tax payers. Not even the Garda fraud squad or Comptroller Auditor General would dare audit all the financial crimes committed by this shower of thugs. Does anyone think this is the last we’ve heard of financial malfeasance at RTE???
@John Doe: 24/7 on this site. You sad cnt
@GLxEnHDy: muted the guy, thankfully can’t read his drivel.
A partly failed IT system in a fully failed organisation. Seems about the right fit.
@Stephen Heffernan: Hey Journal, “journos” (lol) Are you going to do an “explainer” on the Donie Cassidy story? Debunk it when you are free. Laughing stock. Or maybe report on the court cases happening regarding children being stabbed and that pos Puska’s family lying to protect him after he brutally slashed her to death. Any report on these stories? Absolute waste of fkng space. No? Just ignore it then. You are all an actual joke.
@Stephen Heffernan: RTE are done for day are well outdated
@GLxEnHDy: well said Mike, R.I.P. Ashling Murphy, #shewentforarun
Yet we are FORCED to pay for this
@Housing Hunger Games: You’re allowing yourself to be forced. I’ve never paid my tv licence, never will. *shrugs*
Ah sher why not rte.yet carers have to beg and expose the government for a paltry few euros
I don’t understand why suppliers get paid if the product doesn’t do what it was commissioned to do or why they aren’t compelled to deliver what they promised.
@Soundy Sound: I know. It’s mad. So can I go for a tender and get paid and not provide the goods? How is that allowed.
What happened the €720million tax payers money FFG gave RTE conveniently before the last general election
@Kevin O Brien: Shush
Certain individuals have your multi faceted government by the pendulums. RTE sells product to virtually no one.
Nothing will change, until accountability takes hold. That within your media and government is eons away.
Ahh lads don’t worry at all ,sure twas your own money from selling your land. Ye must have hired the same lads that didn’t install the arts councils new IT system at over 6 million!! So between ye 10 million ,no systems ,yet both paid out and kept doing so over 4 years ,knowing from the start things not working out ,….who were the contractors ? Ask for a refund contact cccp you do a show on RTE on how to complain about bad service and get it refunded
One system that didn’t fall was the one that sent the lot of them to Rome when popicus died. Another one that didn’t fail was the one that got them all sorted on dancing with the staff @
As long as RTE continues to push government lies and propaganda, it will be financially supported by the government!
Let’s get miriam on prime time next Monday to ask the hard questions, i.e., are RTE fit for purpose?Surely she’ll tell the truth.
Here we go again. Public Service Broadcaster my bumbum. Self Serving tellers of untruths more like it
The cheapest tenders always seem to turn out to be the most expensive in the end for government agency’s.
@P. V. Aglue: Exactly…..Children’s Hospital….Anyone!????
Big box of new equipment arrives to reception, top of the range from Temu. Nobody there knows how to install it. Then Covid hits. Nobody has the first clue how to use it remotely, for media and financial affairs. Gets left to gather dust. A dog wees on the boxes. €3m quid lost. Has happened to us all. Quite literally.
Buy cheap, pay twice. We hear about this sort of thing time and time again and yet the Office of Government Procurement and the OGCIO who are meant to oversee these things are never mentioned or brought to book.
@Niall Whyte: But! But! But! Rte can have their Cake and Eat It Three Times! LICENCE FEE..ADVERTISEMENTS AND RTE MAGAZINE!….PEOPLE….THIS…Particular White Elephant….Needs to be SHUT DOWN!!!! ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !
@Niall Whyte: ogp are a joke. No efficiencies,savings or accountability. Bunch of overpaid employees that pay the price asked every time. Useless.
SOMETHING SMELLS ROTTEN IN THE STATE OF RTE! …Come on TDs….Enough….REALLY IS ENOUGH!!!
Knowing RTE they probably bought on-Prem.
They sorted out the restriction to allow these guys to get bonuses again right?
Thank god we can watch the public accounts committee dissect this on da telly …..licence fee vindicated
Writedown, a lovely public service word.
@higgy636: Exactly the language they use to try lessen the impact is pathetic .. what’s worse is that again no one will lose their job/s or obscene pensions over it ..let alone be held accountable in anyway…
Dee Forbes where are you??
You know why these projects fail? The people involved. Too busy talking BS about digital transformation in between the WhatsApps about their SUV and Kildare Village trips. Coffee in Donnybrook Fair, sweetie?
The Journal is no better than,those clowns in RTE,hiding the real news in Ireland,but we have ways of finding the truth,or what the main media are hiding,so Journal please get back to reporting the real news
@Billy Power: Australia is full. Tell your mates.
Rte the company that just keeps giving. They just keep getting away with it.
Yet another incidence of total waste of public money at the hands of certain people in RTE. Will they be held accountable? Who knows
Bleeds money that crowd from massive wages to failed systems. The whole organisation has failed I’m not funding them useless shower.
Definitely looking bad for my licence payment now???
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