Purchase of gift cards worth €3,000 queried by HSE auditors

The purchase by the National Drug Treatment Centre of gift cards worth almost €3,000 has been queried by HSE auditors.

An audit of the centre identified the purchase of gift cards totalling €1,300 in eight transactions from a Dublin shopping centre between April and December 2013. The total spend on gift cards in 2012 came to €1,515.

Management said the gift cards related to play therapy, its young persons programme and the Christmas party. Cards were also used to pay for minor day-to-day expenditure, they also said. The auditors said in a report that gift cards were effectively a cash equivalent which could circumvent normal cards used for procuring goods and services. It recommended the centre seek approval from the HSE for its use of gift cards.

Auditors also found gift vouchers worth €570 in a safe which had expired, having been issued in the name of the body which was subsumed into the centre.

The report found more than €73,000 was paid to the firm providing cleaning services for the centre on Dublin’s Pearse Street, but there was no evidence of a public advertisement or tender for this work, as required under EU rules. Management said the arrangement was a historical one and hour rates had been cut twice.

Overall, the auditors found there was inadequate control, given the significant of the findings made.

The centre employs 97 staff and had a budget of €7.7 million in 2013.