Health boards incurred expenditure of some €115 million on capital projects and equipment without the prior authorisation of the Department of Health, a report has found.
Details of the unauthorised capital expenditure were revealed in a report published today by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell.
Mr Purcell said: "While an indicative funding allocation was notified to each health board under the NDP [National Development Plan], and the boards were advised that every effort should be made to achieve national spending objectives, the Department had also stipulated that projects funded by it required authorisation in advance.
"The consequence was that notwithstanding the fact that some health boards advanced elements of their capital programme without reference to the Department, it, nevertheless, had no real option but to fund the unauthorised capital commitments," he said.
The reports found that general expenditure on the health service increased at a faster rate than other public services between 1995 and 2002.
It found that much of the increase on health expenditure was attributed to a rise in pay costs and increasing expenditure on clinical supplies. The General Medical Services Scheme and the enhancement of certain services also contributed to the rise in costs.
Activity levels measured in terms of patient discharges also increased consistently over the seven-year period.
The report also found that deficiencies exist in the systems used to control and monitor staff numbers in the health sector but noted that a new computerised personnel system is expected to address some of the issues.
Other findings in the report focus on the governance of health agencies. Mr Purcell said duly constituted boards were not in place in a number of health agencies, and were therefore not conducive to the proper corporate governance of the agencies and the discharge of accountability for their operations.
The report also revealed that accommodation of staff of the three regional boards established under the ERHA and a new health centre in Bray resulted in once-off costs of €21.7 million as well as annual payments of about €2.9 million.
Inadequate planning of requirements in Bray led to expenditure of €3.4 million in fitting out a building which was only partly used for four years before being vacated, it revealed.
The Comptroller and Auditor General is an independent constitutional officer with responsibility for the audit of public funds. He reports to Dáil Éireann.