I wreaked havoc in Cork one year when I went down to the Siamsa.
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yere footie young lads seem better able to bring home the all Ireland silverware
Kearney not involved with Cork this year Iâm told. Huge loss for us even though he didnât have a great 2019
The executive is expected to try to meet with the members of the sub-committee to try to resolve the situation. The audit and risk committee was approved by the executive on September 24 and by the county committee on October 1.
It is made up of Gerard Lyons, (chair) retired audit partner from Deloitte; CiarĂĄn Murphy, former emeritus dean of Cork University Business School and current emeritus professor of Business Information Systems at UCC; RĂłisĂn OâSullivan, audit associate director at KPMG and Mourneabbey ladies footballer; and Michael Harte, chief financial officer at Dairygold and member of Douglas GAA Club.
We lost two great administrators of the game in Frank and Dela.
Itâs was all going great till they left
Cutbacks
Connie Hartnett RIP
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Riddle over debt shows the weakness at the heart of Cork GAA
Financial trouble the result of mismanagement from the board
For most of the winter a handful of counties have been half-hiding in each otherâs shadow from week to week, grateful for another story to take the heat away from their own agonies of debt, bad governance and shotgun diplomacy. News last week that the Cork county boardâs audit and risk subcommittee is threatening to resign over a dispute about the debt figure in Corkâs end of year reports should be precisely as exciting as this sentence. But this is the PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh debt/post-Delaney era. Good sporting governance, for a brief while at least, is hot.
What bothered the audit subcommittee was the skinny version of the countyâs debt revealed at the annual convention of Cork county board a couple weeks ago and Cork ignoring their advice to reveal the full figure. The Cork GAA accounts had already declared an ugly looking debt of âŹ560,000 for the financial year. The subcommittee reckoned the real total exceeded âŹ2.4m when 2019 financial statements for two subsidiary companies - PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh CTR and Staid Cois Laoi â were included.
Omitting those figures, according to a report sent to the board executive by the subcommittee, compromised the âcompleteness and transparencyâ of the 2019 financial statement and âquestions the fundamental integrity of the Cork county board.
âThe decision to disregard our report puts this committee in an invidious position and has called into question its relevance and effectiveness,â it said. âConsequently, the logical course of action is to resign.â
So why was all that money absent? Were the board ducking and diving? Was Cork trying to dupe its own people about the state of their finances? It comes back to the weakness at the heart of Cork GAA right now. The mismanagement of the stadium debt resulted in Croke Park effectively taking charge and beginning the process of detaching PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh as a company separate from the board, ringfencing in practice those debts away from the day-to-day business of Cork GAA.
Thatâs good for Cork GAA. The problem for Cork county board is losing the freedom to make their own decisions in relation to PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh. In this case, although the board executive was open to including any figures relating to Pairc Ui Chaoimh at convention, Cork donât have a majority voting share on the PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh board. At a meeting of the directors of PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh, it was agreed the company losses shouldnât be shared. The figures hadnât been fully audited in time for convention on December 8 and the anger generated when any estimated cost was revealed in the past year made them cautious.
Instead, it was mentioned in passing at a pre-convention briefing that the PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh accounts hadnât been completed. During the convention Cork treasurer Diarmuid Gowen also confirmed the numbers would look a lot worse when the PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh debt was fully audited and available for public release in the new year. The notes attached to the county board accounts confirmed that âcertain final accounts are still in the process of being agreedâ. Stadium costs were being moved to PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh CTR but wouldnât be completed before the end of Cork GAAâs financial year. The notes also described 2019 as the year Corkâs finances reached âcrisis pointâ.
That financial penalty and the limitations imposed on them are all part of Corkâs penance for the horrendous financial mismanagement of a stadium project and legacy issues that will bother the board for years. The impact of the debt was articulated in a few ways at their annual convention. John OâFlynn, a delegate from Freemount who has forensically followed the PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh project down the years, placed the final debt close to âŹ30m. County chairperson Tracey Kennedy reflected on the mental challenge of steering Cork down a narrow channel between two storms.
âDuring the past week I descended into self-pity, wondering if it would be better for my own mental and physical health if I just walked away from it all,â she said. âHowever, that is not what I want to do. I want to take on the many opportunities we have to continue our improvements. I want to stand before you this time next year with Cork GAA in a much better place.â
Taking a kicking from their own risk and audit subcommittee was a blow to the board for other reasons. The subcommittee was unveiled back in October, at the same time Cork announced a package of managerial appointments in hurling from Donal Ăg Cusack with the U17s to Kieran Kingston with the senior team. Appointing an independent group to monitor the boardâs financial activities was a significant statement of transparency, a modern expression of best practice. This was Cork reinventing itself in another way for a new era.
That relationship is already under stress. A meeting is arranged for next month between the audit and risk subcommittee and the executive and the fully-audited figures for PĂĄirc UĂ Chaoimh are also expected in early 2020. Itâs a problem that can get tidied up with extra clarity on both sides, but another painstaking reminder that Cork GAA remain marooned deep in a minefield of their own making.
I see Brian Hartnett was the main man for Russell Rovers yesterday. Is that the same lad who sat out for a couple of years in order to force a transfer to Midleton around the start of the decade?
When did transfer back?
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A few years back. Same lad.
i thought that was Kevin hartnett ? - assuming Brian is the brother
Donal og went on a lot about Kevin in the book- he was part of the clique at that handball alley they used to go with sean og on sunday mornings during the 09 strike- no doubt they influenced him to xfer
cunts to a man
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Kevin is the older brother who was a wing back IIRC who was on the Cork panel during Sean Og and Donal ogâs vintage
@fenwaypark probably knows
we used to play russell rovers when we we kids and they didnt have a hurling team
it was football and boxing down in shangarry
It was Brian.
Was seen as a big prospect underage but was a bit of a mollocker at senior level.
That is correct. They barely had a football team. Boxing was huge.
Daniel Kearney - what is the story ??
No longer on the squad. No idea why.