Charity boss received undisclosed payment of €600,000

The St John of God charity has made an undisclosed payment of more than €600,000 to its most senior lay executive to discharge pension and employment liabilities.

The size of the largest payment to group chief executive John Pepper is far greater than previously thought.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has sent in its internal auditors after learning about this and other payments totalling €1.64 million paid to 14 senior executives.

The team will be led by the same officials who uncovered massive irregularities in spending at the suicide prevention charity Console.

The order, responding to media revelations about the payments, confirmed earlier this week it made the payments to senior executives in 2013.

It said the money was sourced from rental income on properties rather than coming from the public purse.

The payments were previously believed to range from €50,000 to €250,000 but The Irish Times has learned that the largest sum, paid to Mr Pepper, was more than €600,000. The second-largest payment was more than €100,000.

Mr Pepper declined to say how much he received when interviewed last Monday, and St John of God declined to specify the amounts paid to any of the 14 staff.

It said the consent of all executives would be required before this information was released.

Unaware

The payments were not declared in any publicly available accounts and the HSE, the Department of Health and the Department of Public Expenditure were unaware of them before this week's revelations.

St John of God said 13 of the 14 executives involved worked for Section 38 agencies, which are largely funded by the HSE.

Section 38s are required to abide by public-sector pay rules and their employees are legally regarded as public servants.

Access to public-sector pension schemes is based on the condition that staff are paid according to public-sector pay scales.

Mr Pepper said on Monday his salary was €182,000 a year, paid from private sources.

This is just €3,000 a year less than the salary paid to Taoiseach Enda Kenny or HSE director general Tony O’Brien.

Fempi

Responding to questions, a St John of God spokesman said: “John Pepper is currently not a Section 38 employee and is not currently in receipt of benefits. Fempi no longer applies to him.”

The Financial Emergency Measures in the Public Interest Act has underpinned the various public service pay and pensions reductions since 2009.

Another executive who received the pension payout, St John of God community services chief executive Clare Dempsey, is being paid €125,000 a year.

A HSE circular issued last year stipulated that the maximum salary at Section 38 agencies should be €110,000.

The Dáil Public Accounts Committee, which carried out a lengthy investigation into unauthorised top-ups to Section 38 bodies three years ago, is expected to call representatives of St John of God to hearings.