Senior managers at St John of God paid on two systems

Senior managers at the St John of God organisation who benefited from highly controversial payments to buy out pension and other employment liabilities received sums ranging from €3,874 to €649,371, new figures show.

Official St John of God documents also suggest that there were two separate payroll systems in place for senior managers in the organisation for a number of years.

Top executives received part of their pay through one payroll and the balance through another, according to information which has been shared by St John of God and the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee. The HSE is currently carrying out an internal audit investigation into the payment of more than €1.6 million by St John of God to 14 senior executives in 2013.

Grave concern

St John of God Community Services Ltd is a public service body, known technically as a section 38 organisation, and its staff are considered to be public servants.

The HSE has said it was completely unaware of these payments until recent weeks and that it was “gravely concerned” at the revelations.

The Irish Times reported earlier this month that the largest payment of more than €600,000 had gone to to group chief executive John Pepper.

However, the full breakdown of the payments had not previously been known.

New documents show another executive received a payment of €164,620, while payments of €145,745 and €121,459 were made to other senior managers.

Two other senior executives received payments of about €93,000 while another was paid just under €90,000.

A report provided to the HSE in early July by the St John of God order said that pay for senior managers in the organisation was structured in two amounts – a lower pensionable amount and a second non-pensionable amount.

Recruitment moratorium

“One context being the moratorium on recruitment, where staff were appointed to promotional positions, a decision was taken to retain the individual staff member on their substantive salary and an acting up allowance, equivalent to the appropriate salary scale, was paid through the separate payroll and funded by the Hospitaller Order of St John of God. “

“In 2010, a decision was taken to pay the non-pensionable portion of senior managers’ salaries on the Brothers’ private payroll.”

The document sent to the HSE says that in 2013, in the light of public controversy over top-up payments to senior managers in health agencies, the Provincial Council of the Hospitaller Order of St John of God took the decision to buy out the exposure of any future liability related to contractual arrangements. It was in this context that the €1.6 million was paid to senior managers at the time.