Hospital spent €1.8m on deals that broke transparency rules, says review

A major hospital gave out €1.8m in taxpayers’ money to outside firms in deals which broke transparency rules and failed to follow strict competition laws.

An external review into the payments, obtained by irishhealth.com, confirmed initial Health Information Quality Authority (Hiqa) concerns from May.

This initial report also revealed that a handful of senior officials in the same facility received €739,000 in unofficial “top-up” deals between 2005 and 2010.

The independent review into Tallaght Hospital’s finances shows the facility spent €1.8m in 2010 without undergoing clearly stated vetting procedures.

In the same year, it breached Government rules by seconding a staff member from a consultancy firm to temporarily fill the hospital’s vacant deputy finance officer position. This 19-week post cost the taxpayer €176,000.

The external review, by Patricia Barker, confirmed a total of €1.8m worth of management consultancy deals were never tendered.

This is despite the fact any such contract costing over €60,000 must undergo the transparency step except in exceptional circumstances.

Senior hospital officials said they believe the deals offered value for money, and that Tallaght was forced to make quick decisions due to scandals at the time. The report insisted procurement rules must be followed regardless of circumstances.

Tallaght spent €1.86m for outside consultancy work in 2010. This included €1.39m to British-based PwC for governance and emergency department advice, as well as outpatients management. A further €465,000 was spent on audit and non-audit fees to PwC’s Irish branch, including the €176,000 deputy finance officer role.

The financial transparency breaches were first highlighted by Hiqa in May.

At the time, Hiqa said there were concerns over how two firms received contracts for work detailed in Hiqa’s damning Tallaght emergency department safety report.

The latest report said Tallaght’s designate chief executive at the time, Kevin Conlon, had “no recollection” of being alerted to the non-tendering issues before the Hiqa document.

However, the report said Tallaght’s own audit committee had raised concerns.

The review said no person or related party benefited personally from the deals.