THE Southern Health Board (SHB) sold land for more than £0.5 million without the approval of the Minister for Health on how it would spend the proceeds.
The Dail Committee of Public Accounts also heard yesterday that the board employed a consultant at a cost of £120,000 without putting the work out to public tender. And one radiographer was paid more than £41,000 in overtime payments in 1994, more than twice the salary for that grade. "He must be a bionic man," Mr Michael Finucane (FG), remarked, "to be on call and get £41,000.
The SHB chief executive, Mr Sean Hurley, was the first health board head to address TDs and the comptroller and auditor general, Mr John Purcell, directly. Questions on the health board accounts were taken previously by a Department secretary.
The board had been dogged by cash flow problems in the late 1980s.
Mr Hurley told Mr Finucane he had been acting chief executive in 1994, the year covered by the accounts before the committee. In his report Mr Purcell said the chief executive had informed him that, due to an oversight, ministerial approval for the use of money raised from the sale of land was not sought in 1994.
Mr Hurley said the board sold 50 acres of land adjoining Our Lady's Hospital for around £300,000 in 1989. A further £100,000 was raised by the sale of a hospital in Tralee, Co Kerry.
