THE HSE has been overpaying some staff in wages; paying some employees rates of travel expenses which do not comply with national regulations; and it may also be handing out allowances to rural doctors who are no longer entitled to them, according to a report.
A review of the system of internal control in the HSE says there is a need to recruit accountants to the organisation.
The report, which has been seen by The Irish Times, indicates there has been an increase in the number of payroll overpayments to staff over the last few years. At the end of 2009 the amount overpaid in salaries stood at €4.7 million but this rose to €5.04 million at the end of 2010, it says.
Overpayments, according to the report arise for a variety of reasons including late notification of staff going on career breaks, payments made when sick leave pay has been exhausted, late notice of resignations and some result from errors in payroll departments.
The internal audit, completed last month, also found evidence of some “local arrangements” where the HSE paid travel and subsistence costs at rates which are at variance with the rates approved by the Department of Finance.
The report does not say how much was paid out in error but stresses all such local arrangements must be regularised.
Furthermore, the audit finds evidence that a number of doctors currently in receipt of rural practice allowances may no longer be entitled to them.
The allowance, which amounts to more than €19,000 a year, is payable where a doctor lives and practices in a centre with a population of less than 500 and where there is not a town with a population of 1,500 or more within a three mile radius of the doctor’s surgery.
The auditors recommended a national review of all doctors presently in receipt of the allowance. The HSE said last night this had now been completed and all 100 doctors getting the allowance were entitled to it.
The audit, referred to in the HSE’s annual report for 2010, published on Tuesday, in which its chief executive Cathal Magee branded financial and service information systems in the organisation as “not fit for purpose”, also reveals settlements with the Revenue Commissioners totalling €4.45 million were made by the HSE since December.
The report says while the HSE has a statutory requirement to charge private patients who opt for private care in public hospitals “there continues to be a less than optimal trend of income recovery from privately treated patients and substantial delays in collecting debts”. The amount of private insurance income outstanding nationally in September 2010 was about €170.5 million. After a concerted effort by hospitals, some €19 million of this was recovered within four months and the report says the momentum achieved in 2010 needs to be built on in 2011.