Accountant faces disqualification over £2.2m fiasco
Northern Ireland’s Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) has started disqualification proceedings against a chartered accountant at the centre of the failed £2.2m Bioscience and Technology Institute (BTI) project.
Accountant Teresa Townsley had been appointed to the board of the BTI, along with three others, but ended up with her own private company earning £127,000 in fees from the government-backed initiative.
The company went insolvent in 2005 after a series of payments, which auditors found irregular, including £100,000 paid to Mrs Townsley as a 'finder’s fee' for finding a building which proved so unsuitable it was never even fitted out.
The Northern Ireland Audit Office has since produced a new report that shows there were concerns surrounding her conduct along with no evidence that she had told the rest of the board about this payment.
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Gravy Trains
Looks like yet another scam with public money being misappropriated. It makes me wonder if the correct people handle all this public grant money supplied for schemes like this, are they really up to it? We had a similar occurrence with our local Council a few years ago where a relative of a relative of a relative (we all know the picture) was provided with hundreds of thousands for a similar study on a proposed totally unsuitable building on a seafront car park which, after hundreds of years, suddenly appeared to belong to the Council and not the fishermen. She closed/liquidated the company to ensure that there was no possibility of the money being returned and the land has now been given for free to a Art Gallery which very few of the inhabitants of the town want. Whatever happened to the "arm's length transaction" term?
TheAncientOne
proceeds of crime -POC
POC action should get all the ill gotten gains back if court action ensues from the public outcry... Ok you can always dream
Yet another crooked accountant. 2 thanks
How much has it cost to produce this report?
Ms Townsley should be made to reimburse the tax payer for the cost of uncovering her dishonesty.