CRC revelations show need for more transparency, says Howlin

Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin has admitted there will "great difficulty" in ensuring that all health bodies in receipt of taxpayers' money comply with pay guidelines.

Reacting to an admission that funds raised by the Central Remedial Clinic’s fundraising arm were used to top up executive salaries, Mr Howlin said it illustrated the need for transparency among all agencies in receipt of public money.

“Everybody who receives money from the public purse should be transparent with a clear knowledge of what people are paid”.

“The rate for the job should be determined and nobody should get paid more than the rate.”

Mr Howlin said the HSE is now unravelling "decades of practice where agencies and voluntary hospitals had their own independent governing structures and jealously guarded them", he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland programme.

As a result the HSE had great difficulty in getting the information from these agencies until their own internal auditors found it.

Public Accounts Committee chairman John McGuinness had described revelations about the CRC as "simply not acceptable".

Mr McGuinness said he intended to call senior managers from the CRC before the committee.

Its charitable arm, the Friends and Supporters of the Central Remedial Clinic (CRC), is not audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General's office.

Mr McGuinness said the CRC was in breach of both the 2004 Health Act and the Government’s guidelines on pay in the public service.

The HSE is now investigating the CRC’s accounts.

“It will be the intention of the public accounts committee to bring before it the CRC in order to get the details of what is happening here so that we can account for public monies and understand that pay policies are not being bleached,” he said.

“This is an issue that will be first dealt with by the HSE. Following their report, and if it is not satisfactory, we’ll have to have a hearing with them.”

He maintained there was now a series of problems across the sector because of the fact that they are using monies, other than public monies, to top up executive salaries.

“We need clarity on this. We need to ensure that the salaries are in line with Haddington Road and every other agreement,” he said. “The substantial top ups are not acceptable.”