Health boards spend €115m on unapproved projects

HEALTH boards spent up to €115 million on building projects without Department of Health approval, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General revealed yesterday.

A health audit from the Government watchdog found the problem arose after €2.54 billion in funding was announced for capital investment in the health sector as part of the National Development Programme (NDP) in 2000.

By February the following year, each health board had sent a draft development plan to the Department of Health and had been informed individually how much money they would have to spend.

According to the Department of Health, they were also reminded to stick to standard approval practices, which meant a capital building contract could not be signed off without department approval.

However, by late 2001, it emerged that boards had entered into building agreements which had never been submitted to the department for approval, and they had also agreed costly design and scope changes to already sanctioned projects.

The department told the C&AG that they viewed the “matter as a very serious one” and that, in their opinion, the boards had acted “in direct contravention of several reminders from the department that projects needed prior approval”.

They said that they had failed to “comply with established procedures and principles of sound management” because of “raised general expectations of increased funding”. However, the health boards told the C&AG that they had taken the view, collectively and individually, that the projects were necessary and “procured in accordance with established procedures of the boards”.

“They also pointed out that they had not expended funds on any project that had not been included in their NDP programmes, which were approved by the board and submitted to the department,” the health audit stated.

According to the report, the department was put in a position afterwards where they “had no real option but to fund most if not all of the unauthorised capital commitments”. The C&AG concluded that planning and management systems at the time “were not sufficiently robust” and the confusion had led “to an uneven implementation of the capital programme which could have impacted adversely on the regional and sectoral investment balance which the NDP was designed to achieve”.