HSE audits reveal financial waste

More than €92,000 of credit card expenditure by a State-funded youth service — largely on hotels, restaurants, and entertainment — a €14,000 payment to a consultant for a week on call, and close to €20,000 to a recruitment agency for a doctor already working in the hospital are among a litany of poor financial practices highlighted in HSE audits.

The reports, released under Freedom of Information legislation, raised wide-ranging concerns such as:

- Seven separate expense accounts operated by Youth Advocates Programnmes (YAP), funded by the Child and Family Agency, for which there were no written guidelines for what could be claimed or for the amounts;