Nearly €5m in overpayments to HSE staff outstanding - report

Nearly €5 million in overpayments to HSE staff remained outstanding at the end of 2011, an internal audit carried out by the health authority has found.

The HSE said last night that overpayments could occur for a variety of reasons, including payments made in advance to staff, late notification of changes to staff work patterns, payments made when sick leave pay has been exhausted, late notice of resignations and administration errors in payroll departments.

The HSE said new overpayments of €1.8 million had come to light in 2013. It was unable to provide an overall total of the amount of overpayments currently outstanding.

The HSE said it took the issue of salary overpayments seriously and that this was a standing item on the agenda of its audit committee.

“Each HSE region manages the payroll process and is responsible for identifying the cause of the overpayment and ensuring any salary overpayments are recouped in line with the HSE’s national financial regulations.”

However, an internal audit report into payroll overpayments and recoupment process in the finance department in Tullamore, published this week, said it had found a number of control weaknesses.

It said that among the weaknesses identified were letters not being issued to employees who were overpaid as required under national financial regulations, adequate information not being maintained on file in relation to overpayments, the prompt repayment of money not being facilitated by the enclosing of a schedule for paying back the money in original correspondence sent to staff.