HSE internal audits July-December 2015 - Concern over award of €338k contracts

A potential conflict of interest has been identified by the HSE in an audit of the manner in which contracts worth €338,000 were awarded to a private firm by a hospital group whose chief executive had a business interest in the same company.

Bill Maher, former CEO of the Saolta University Healthcare Group (SUHG), still had a business involvement with Northgate, a private company specialising in public service contracts, when it was hired to provide a clinical information management system (CIMS) worth €151,500 for what was then the Galway Roscommon University Hospital Group.

His involvement had not ceased when an IT manager was seconded from Northgate to SUHG at a cost of €148,445 and when catering and cleaning contracts, each worth €4m, were drawn up in 2012, with Northgate assisting in drawing up specifications at a cost of €38,171.