University paid €130,000 to consultancy firm

NUI Galway has spent more than €130,000 for advice and services from a Dublin-based private consultancy.

Athrú Consultancy Limited was hired by the city university for a variety of reasons over a three-year period.

The business was paid in a total of €132,783 for services supplied last year, in 2014 and 2012.

The figures were released following a Freedom of Information request.

In 2015, Athrú was paid a total of €53,354 by NUIG.

The bulk of this (€28,399) was for work in the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences. Some €7,380 was paid to the company for services supplied to the university’s president’s office.

The remaining money in 2015, according to the spread sheet of payments, was spent on ‘information solutions services’ (€6,150), ‘executive director of operations (€10,425) and School of Law (€1,000).

In 2014, Athrú was paid a total of €28,255.

This figure included services supplied to the Registrar’s office (€6,765); the Press and Communications office (€1,845); for ‘marketing and communications (€1,854); the Human Resources office (€6,150); the School of Law (€7,960); and the College of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (€3,690).

In 2012, a total of €51,174 was paid by NUIG to Athrú.

Some €13,852 of this was for “institutional and strategic events”; €3,000 was for “SDF 2011 President Allocation”; €12,074 was for services to the Alumni office; €5,535 for the Human Resources office; some €6,874 for advertising and recruitment; and €9,840 for information and solutions services.

The NUIG press office said it had ‘no comment’ to make about the expenditure.

However, in its FOI response, NUIG explained that Athrú, “have provided a broad range of HR and organisational development services to a wide variety of units within the university.”

It added: “A number of different consultants from within Athrú Consultancy have provided these services.”

NUIG refused to release the hourly rates paid to this private company and cited “commercial sensitivity reasons”.

Athrú, on its website, describes itself as a HR and organisational development consultancy, “created to support organisations and people. We work with our clients to achieve their objectives by providing rigorously developed innovative solutions that are based on in-depth analysis and a deep understanding of their business challenges”.

Gerry McAleavey is listed as a senior consultant and partner in Athrú. Seán O’Driscoll is a managing partner.