HSE reformer receives €1m since retiring

THE chairman of the state’s implementation body for health sector reform has received over €1 million in severance fees, non-tendered projects from former colleagues and other payouts since retiring from the health service.

Documents obtained by the Irish Examiner, which the HSE initially refused to release, show Pat Harvey has received the money since 2005. He now oversees a group tasked with saving the state money.

The retired civil servant is a former chair of the defunct HSE Employers Agency (HSE EA); chief executive of the North Western Health Board (now HSE North West); chair of the PPARS (personnel, payroll and related systems) project; and former general manager of Sligo and Letter-kenny hospitals.

Freedom of Information documents show he retired on September 23, 2005.

In early 2006, the consultancy firm he founded on June 3, 2005, received two lucrative contracts from the HSE EA, which he previously chaired and was connected to in 2004.

An internal health service review confirmed these projects were not tendered for — a breach of HSE financial and governance regulations.

The projects given to Harwyn Management Consultants, totalling €295,526, were a €126,919 Violence and Aggression in the Workplace project Mr Harvey chaired (2006-2009), and a further €168,607 for mediation services (January 2006 to December 2009).

“Do I think there was a bias? There was no bias,” Mr Harvey said last night. He said the projects were not discussed before he retired. Tendering was a matter for the HSE EA: the cost of the projects and who would lead them were decided by management and unions, and some of the money was paid to other groups by his firm.

When Mr Harvey left the HSE he received a once-off “severance gratuity” of €194,655.49 and a €60,934 “ex-gratia payment” given to former regional chiefs executive.

He also receives an annual pension of €64,855.16.

Since retiring Mr Harvey, chairman of the Croke Park agreement’s health service group, has received:

* €389,130.90 pension.

* €295,526 in non-tendered contracts from a group he used to chair.

* €255,589.49 in one-off severance pay.

* Just under €200,000 in HSE projects tendered for since 2007.

* An annual salary of €20,520 as chair of the implementation body on health-sector reform.

The figures emerged after the Irish Examiner obtained a highly critical HSE internal audit on the HSE EA’s 2006-2009 spending.

In July, the HSE refused to identify retired management and union “third parties” who received non-tendered projects.