HSE: Litany of overpayments, expenses, debts

A damning report on HSE services reveals a litany of criticisms, overpayments in regions, luxury hotel expense claims and huge amounts in uncollected debts.

The draft HSE response to the Comptroller and Auditor General audit includes criticisms about medical card assessments, concerns about storing stock and delays in handling payments.

The 42-page 2013 audit, obtained by the Irish Examiner, was accidentally leaked to Oireachtas members yesterday, the HSE said.

The audit examined payments to charities in two regions and found that “a lack of monitoring and oversight” by the HSE could result in “monies not being spent for the purpose intended”.

This was based on a sample of 20 grants to outside agencies and concerns about service level agreements.

In relation to Crumlin Hospital, it found it had no written policies in respect of entertainment, credit cards and travel expenditure. It also said the CEO, in addition to their salary receives an allowance for €30,000, which is in excess of the HSE allowable pay scales. The audit said the hospital did not notify the HSE of instances of fraud as required.

The audit examined overpayments in three HSE regions. The total value of these was €2.9m. It found that no repayments had been made for 2013 in respect of €1.4m of these.

The audit found in the HSE South West that a medical officer is paid at a sessional rate of €44.44 per hour. The HSE said this was introduced in 2000 under the meningitis C programme. There was no evidence of the Department of Health sanctioning the rate.

The audit reviewed a sample of 44 allowances for extra duties, qualifications, local allowances, acting-up and dual responsibility payments paid in 2013 selected from three HSE regions. It found that 13 allowances examined had no evidence that they had been appropriately sanctioned.

The audit examined a sample of 72 travel and subsistence claims selected from six HSE locations. It found that three had incomplete documentation and four claimed incorrect subsistence for both domestic and foreign travel while a number of others were incomplete.

It found that claims for hotels “appeared excessive”, including for €300 a night for the Merrion Hotel in Dublin and €500 a night for a hotel in Milan.

In one case, an employee travelled to New York for a conference accompanied by a guest. Flights were claimed for this guest and the hotel bill claimed showed two stayed in the room.

There were also weaknesses over stores and stocks of goods, particularly in relation to Cork University Hospital and University Hospital Galway. This could give rise to “misappropriation of stock”, it warned.

The HSE last night said that the document was “very much in draft form” and is being prepared as a response to the C&AG.