GMIT probe ‘raised more questions than answers’

The chairman of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has agreed to probe further the expenditure of €436,000 by Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) on a plagiarism investigation.

Fianna Fáil TD, John McGuinness said it was “incredible” in terms of “governance and money” how some €460,000 was spent by GMIT on an investigation of one incident of plagiarism at the Dublin Road college. Deputy McGuinness said it warranted further investigation by PAC and he agreed to return to the matter at another sitting.

The issue was raised at PAC by Galway East TD, Paul Connaughton Junior, alumni of the college.

The Fine Gael Deputy said the correspondence received by the PAC from the Higher Education Authority about the expenditure by GMIT “raised more questions than it answers”.

He requested the PAC would return to look at the matter again and tease out the issues.

According to correspondence presented to PAC, it cost €1,500 per day for the two investigators, said Deputy Connaughton. “I doubt Sherlock Holmes would have cost that much,” he said.

Speaking at the PAC Dáil committee, he added: “There is no conclusion in sight and the review could continue like a runaway train. The last point was that there was an argument between the investigators that required further legal action between the two of them before the report could be published. That was also an extra cost on the taxpayer.”

He said the report received by members of the PAC raises many questions about the expenditure of money by GMIT. He said that officials from the Department of Education, Higher Education Authority and GMIT would have to come in and “explain it again and to give some detail”.

Deputy Connaughton said: “How did they come up with the €1,500? Why there was no interim report? Why was there no deadline? At the very end (of the report) it states that the college’s procedures for dealing with plagiarism were fit for purpose. It cost us €436,000 to find that out. So many more questions need to be asked about this.”

The chairman of the PAC agreed and promised that the committee would return to the issue of governance and expenditure of money at GMIT in relation to the plagiarism investigation. PAC members hope to return to the GMIT issue before the summer recess.

GMIT President Michael Carmody, who has now retired, and Financial Controller, Jim Fennell, have both previously conceded the investigation has damaged the institute’s reputation.

The incident of plagiarism under investigation relates to a masters student at the School of Business in 2009. It was asked to establish the facts around the allegation that a lecturer facilitated a student, her partner, to cheat in an assignment.

The external investigation was also charged with exposing whether the cheating incident was “suppressed, concealed or covered up” by staff.

The external investigation was launched following revelations highlighted in this newspaper about the incident of plagiarism; and after several internal investigations failed to get to the bottom of the issue.

Mr Carmody has confirmed disciplinary action was taken against staff on foot of the report into the incident, which GMIT has refused to publish the report despite initially indicating that it would be published.

Prior to his retirement, Mr Carmody confirmed the college was dealing with another ‘historical’ case and told the Galway City Tribune that they could never be fully confident that there weren’t more plagiarism ‘skeletons’ in the college’s closet.