Ex-HSE official defends earnings from contracts

A RETIRED senior HSE official who received hundreds of thousands of euro in non-tendered contracts has said “the country is awash” with former officials who earn money the same way.

Responding to an Irish Examiner investigation into spending at the now-defunct HSE Employers Agency (HSE EA), Pat Harvey argued it was “more of an issue for the HSE” and he “never asked” for the money or contracts.

Mr Harvey, from Letterkenny, was speaking on the Donegal-based Highland Radio after it emerged he received lucrative non-tendered contracts from the HSE EA — a group he used to chair — just months after retiring.

Official documents, which the HSE initially refused to release, show the current chair of the Croke Park agreement’s implementation body on health sector reform retired on September 23, 2005.

In early 2006, Harwyn Management Consultants — the consultancy firm he founded on June 3, 2005 — received €295,526 worth of contracts from the HSE EA.

Mr Harvey, a former North Western Health Board (now HSE North West) chief executive, previously chaired the HSE EA and was connected to it in 2004. “I didn’t ask for it [the contracts] nor was there an opportunity for tendering in that process,” he told Highland Radio.

A HSE internal audit of the HSE EA’s finances specifically said this is not the case.

When asked about the close proximity between the setting up of the consultancy firm and his retirement Mr Harvey, who official records show retired on September 23, 2005, said: “There certainly was nothing in the offing. The newspaper suggests I was already up and running with the consultancy before I retired. That’s a misrepresentation, I left in January and the deal allowed me to be paid until September.”

He added that he “genuinely can’t remember” when his first consultancy work with the health service was, but that “it wouldn’t surprise me if it was in that summer, August or September”.

“The country is awash with people who exit the public service, go into various businesses, or are employed by others, and who then charge the public service in effect for their time,” he added.

Fine Gael TD Marcella Corcoran Kennedy is due to receive a formal Dáil response from Health Minister, Dr James Reilly, on Monday.

She has asked for the identities of six retirees who received contracts; whether any of the contracts were advertised; the number of other competitors for the contracts; and who conducted the interviews for this work, if any interviews occurred.