HSE postpones PPARS decision again

The further roll-out of PPARS, the controversial computerised payroll and human resources system for the health service, will remain suspended until the middle of next year at the earliest. This follows a decision by the Health Service Executive (HSE) to carry out another review into whether the system will meet future requirements.

More than €130 million has so far been spent on the Personnel, Payroll and Related Systems (PPARS) project, which is operating in three health service regions and in St James's Hospital, Dublin. However, last November HSE chief executive Prof Brendan Drumm suspended the further implementation of the system amid concerns at escalating costs. Last December, the Comptroller and Auditor General also strongly criticised the way in which the PPARS project had been managed and delivered.

The Irish Times has learned that last Thursday the HSE board decided to postpone consideration of its long-term options for the project until the exact requirements of the new centralised HSE for a payroll and human resources system were determined. PPARS was originally intended to serve 17 separate agencies under the former health board system.

The board also decided to defer its evaluation of PPARS until the efficiency of the project was maximised.

An internal HSE steering group, which had been reviewing the project over the past year, concluded that "while the project is delivering many benefits, some business issues remain to be resolved".

In a statement yesterday, the HSE said these issues included "the major and ongoing changes to the business environment the project is operating in since it was first considered in 1995 [from 17 health agencies to one HSE structure], the need to further standardise processing systems and clarify the project's objectives and scope within the new single-structure environment".

A new project group, headed by HSE national director for shared service Laverne McGuinness, has been established to examine, over the next nine months, the requirements of the HSE and to ensure all residual problems have been resolved.

The Opposition last night criticised the decision to defer the evaluation of the PPARS project until next summer.

Labour Party health spokeswoman Liz McManus said most reasonable people would conclude that the decision had been made for political reasons - to put off the issue of the future of the system until after the general election. She said the decision was extraordinary given that the HSE had been carrying out a review of the project for nearly a year.

Ms McManus said she would table parliamentary questions for the Minister for Health on the issue when the Dáil resumed and she would be questioning Prof Drumm in relation to the project, in particular on the costs of the new review, when he appeared before the Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children at the end of September.

The PPARS project was initially expected to cost about €9 million. However, in his report, the Comptroller and Auditor General found that the costs had been consistently underestimated.

The Comptroller found that the system was delivering fewer functions than had been envisaged and there was no evidence of staff savings where the payroll system was operating.