Universities punished for staff top-ups

The Independent 20 December 2013

Irish universities are to lose out on €3.6 million (US$4.9 million) in funding as punishment for making unauthorised top-up allowances to staff – but the pain is to be spread across five years, writes Shane Phelan for The Independent.

The Higher Education Authority is withholding the funding as a sanction for unauthorised allowances given to university presidents and other high-ranking staff between 2005 and 2011. The universities have not been forced to pay back the cash. Instead, they are losing out on future funding.

The news came as the Department of Education confirmed that legislation banning unauthorised allowances would be brought before parliament next year. In total, some €7.2 million in top-ups was paid to around 230 academics and administrators over a seven-year period.
Full report on The Independent site

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