Audit finds payment errors in 50% of HSE redundancies

A SAMPLE audit of a €400 million HSE voluntary redundancy scheme found errors in the payments made to half of those workers who received packages.

An internal audit of the scheme found the eight-week deadline for two voluntary redundancy schemes in the HSE was a “huge challenge”.

It could have led to incorrect amounts being paid to departing staff, according to internal audit documents.

In November 2010, then minister for health and children Mary Harney announced a €400 million redundancy scheme within the health services and gave interested parties up to December 30th, 2010, to apply.

A voluntary early retirement scheme was aimed at management and administrative staff over the age of 50 who had not reached pension age.

There was also a voluntary redundancy scheme targeted at those with more than two years service.

The two schemes together attracted about 2,000 successful applications.

An internal audit of HSE South East in Kilkenny revealed that almost €6 million was paid to 142 individuals under the schemes.

A sample audit of 20 workers who took redundancy found that 10 had errors in their final payments. All errors identified were advised to the relevant department for accurate calculations.

The auditors concluded that information used to calculate redundancy payments was “reasonably accurate”.

However, the short timeframe involved between the announcement and the final deadline, “together with the lack of experience in processing redundancy entitlements in the HSE, posed significant challenges to all”.

The internal audit said there was confusion over addresses to which the potential applicants would have to send their applications

In a separate audit, a number of “control weaknesses” were found in the implementation of a system for requesting and storing medical images for the whole HSE worth €61.5 million.

The National Integrated Medical Imaging System was launched in 2010, and the main supplier was McKesson, which is a global supplier of health technology.

It is intended that the system will be used by 35 hospitals by 2013 as a national system.

The audit was focused on the controls in place to manage and govern the project.

It said the HSE team set up to implement the project was too dependent on a project manager who was seconded part-time.

It warned that an absence of management might leave the supplier to take control of the project.

Since the recommendations were made a full-time project manager has been appointed to the project.