Exam cheat probe runs up bills of €225,000

BY DARA BRADLEY

Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) has so far spent almost a quarter of a million euro on an unprecedented investigation into an incident of cheating at the college.

The astonishing disclosure of expenditure of €224,676 of taxpayers’ money on the independent external probe comes almost 20 months after the investigation was first launched at the Dublin Road institute.

The investigation, which is also charged with exposing whether the cheating incident was “suppressed, concealed or covered up” by staff within the institute, was launched in April 2011 and is still ongoing.

The total cost of the inquiry up to October 1, 2012, and a breakdown of the spending, was released to the Galway City Tribune following a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI).

GMIT, in a statement responding to the FOI, said the costs were “significant” but “necessary” in order to ensure the public “will have confidence” in its “academic integrity”. It said the expenditure should be judged in the context of the independent report and expects the investigation to conclude in “early 2013”.

The bulk of expenditure was paid to the two-person independent investigation team of Professor Bairbre Redmond, the deputy registrar for teaching and learning at University College Dublin, and Ed Madden, a barrister and mediator with 30 years experience of working in industrial relations and human resources.

Mr Madden has to date earned €112,172 in fees for conducting the investigation. Prof Redmond, who took unpaid leave from UCD in order to complete the inquiry, has earned €41,153.

Two sets of legal advisors were also engaged and paid for by GMIT as part of the investigation. Hayes solicitors earned fees of €24,168 so far for advising the investigation team; and Arthur Cox solicitors have so far earned €21,872 for advising the institute itself.

One senior lecturer at GMIT was aghast at the figure, and wondered whether the investigation had been put out to tender.

“It is unbelievable, just truly astonishing that they could have spent that amount of money at a time when every other aspect of spending at GMIT has been cut back. There is still no sign of a report but, given such huge sums of money, I would be hoping that the investigation and report is comprehensive and robust, otherwise it will be even more of a waste,” the lecturer said.

The investigation was launched following a series of revelations in this newspaper about plagiarism at GMIT, and discontent among teaching staff about standards. 

For more on this story, see the Galway City Tribune.