Eight HSE officials clock up €109k in travel expenses

Eight senior HSE officials clocked up €109,380 in travel expenses in just over a year — including €31,043 for one person alone.

The pay-outs are detailed in the latest HSE internal audits, which also highlight how GPs are claiming for drug addict work at already-closed clinics; lucrative non-tendered contracts for existing staff; and concerns patient files could fall into the wrong hands.

The records, obtained by the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act, show between January 2012 and early 2013 a total of 3,555 people working in the HSE South-East area shared a total travel and subsistence payout of €8.279m. Of this, 481 managers received €945,131 — of which the top eight were given €109,380.

Highlighting the situation, the audit authors said one of these high-ranking officials received €31,043 for travel and subsistence during the period, despite “the fact their base is within easy access to the public transport network” and that the destination was regularly described as “office”.

They added the pay-outs effectively mean the eight officials whose records were examined are taking home average travel and subsistence funds five times higher than other managers.

Among 45 other files released yesterday are:

nA report into Dublin City addiction services which found a GP was claiming for work at a named clinic, despite the fact the facility was closed for two years as its building was “condemned”.

Another GP claimed 75 times for 7am-10am “clinic duties” in one facility, while also claiming 9am-12am work in a second facility — resulting in €5,362 being wrongly paid out.

nPrimary care and social worker concerns “sensitive data” is not encrypted, meaning patient names, bank details and contact information could fall into the wrong hands via “third party IT providers”.

nDetails of how a North-West hospital employee earned €128,000 over the past five years for repairing medical aid appliances. This contract was never tendered for, with the employee allowed to perform the extra-curricular work at his HSE office from 1pm on Fridays.