HSE-funded charities flout pay level rules

At least 15 HSE-funded charities are continuing to flout strict pay level rules imposed for 320 individuals after the Central Remedial Clinic and Rehab financial scandals.

Senior HSE officials revealed the situation yesterday as they admitted they could not “guarantee” all groups are clear of spending scandals and warned that last year’s Console crisis was “the poster-boy of everything that could go wrong” when spending gets out of control.

HSE national director of human resources Rosarii Mannion told the Dáil’s Public Accounts Committee that there are a number of cases where pay restrictions are still being breached — they range “from the very minor to very serious”.

Asked by Independent TD Catherine Connolly what she means by “very serious”, Ms Mannion looked at her notes before pausing and declining to identify the groups or individuals involved.

However, after saying “they’re all very serious when they’re not compliant”, Ms Mannion said “there are 15 agencies not compliant with public pay policy” and the breaches relate to “320 business cases we are working on at the moment”.

The figure — down from the more than 200 agencies and 520 business cases during the CRC and Rehab scandals in 2014 — was criticised by a number of committee members, including Fianna Fáil TD Marc MacSharry.

Mr MacSharry said the reality is that the limited resources available for the HSE auditing system meant “it could take 113 years to get through all of the organisations if we’re only looking at 19 a year”. He questioned whether there was an appropriate system in place.

HSE director general Tony O’Brien admitted the system would need “an army of auditors” to examine the finances of every one of the more than 2,000 groups receiving money from the HSE and that he cannot “guarantee” no further spending scandals are taking place.

He said the issues being discussed have been identified because of the auditing system, and that the services the charities provide on behalf of the State mean immediate sanctions are not always appropriate. “I learned that the best way to herd cats is to move the food.”

The HSE’s national director of internal audit, Michael Flynn, said the 2016 Console crisis is the “poster-boy for everything that could go wrong” in the system.

While emphasising that improvements are taking place, the HSE’s chief financial officer, Stephen Mulvany, said new service procurement transparency plans are “at least 12 to 18 months” away.