Several alleged unauthorised payments at Trinity are under Garda investigation, the Irish Examiner has reported.
Senior College figures told the Examiner that “a fraud of College funds” had occurred.
The Garda Press Office has confirmed to this newspaper that “Gardaí are investigating suspected fraudulent financial activity at an education institution in Dublin”.
The matter was discussed at the most recent meeting of College Board on March 23rd. The agenda for the meeting says that the university’s consolidated financial statements as well as a report from the audit committee were considered.
The University Times understands that Board members were not told what the payments were for at that meeting. Provost Linda Doyle read out a prepared statement but said she could not answer questions on the matter as it is under investigation.
Garda are believed to have confiscated machinery including computers as part of the investigation.
Confirming the existence of a Garda investigation, in a statement to the Irish Examiner, Trinity said: “Last year, the university was made aware of alleged inappropriate payments relating to one of its activities,” adding that internal and external authorities had been notified.
College and senior sources within the university provided the newspaper with conflicting reports on the scale of the fraud.
The statement said that “the total amount identified to date is not considered to have a material effect on the university’s finances,” but one source told the Examiner that “this is not a few thousand euros here”.
College said: “As the matter is being investigated by the Gardaí, we are not in a position to say anything more at this stage.”
“The university has since taken actions to strengthen the control environment relating to this particular activity.”
Emer Moreau also contributed reporting to this article.
