HSE report urges review of Stewarts Care salaries to align them to official scales

A full review of salaries paid to employees at the Stewarts Care organisation should be completed and payment aligned with official salary scales, consultants commissioned by the HSE have recommended.

An analysis of the 906 staff at the organisation carried out by consultants Deloitte found there were 70 employees whose gross salary did not match official Department of Health pay scales.

Stewarts Care Limited is a voluntary organisation providing community -based services to people with an intellectual disability.

Deloitte said a detailed process should be carried out in the company to reconcile staff contracts with official pay scales. The consultants also recommended the company should ensure all new entrants were placed on the correct salary in line with the official pay scales.

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The review of Stewarts Care was one of a number commissioned by the HSE into hospitals and health agencies that it funds – known as section 38 organisation – to determine if they are complying with pay policy and to assess governance arrangements.

Incorrect

The Deloitte review found that in 22 instances, Stewarts Care said the information contained within its payroll data was incorrect.

“When the number of points in the scale increased, Stewarts Care Limited, rather than increasing the number of points on their system, used a step back approach and increased the pay value of lower points on the scale. In a number of instances the payroll data was incorrect for this reason.”

The report said that in 48 instances the scale on which an individual was on related to an old scale and had not been updated in line with revised pay scales.

Did not align

In 50 instances the description in the Stewarts Care Limited payroll system did not align to the department’s consolidated pay scales.

“In some instances the description per Stewarts Care was not on the pay scales at all, ” the review said.

Deloitte said in some cases an employee was impacted by more than one of these four explanations for their pay not matching the official department scales.

Deloitte also highlighted non-compliance by Stewarts Care with public procurement guidelines. It said a sample review of transactions had it found that in all but one the number of firms invited to tender was less than the required five.