Government officials are expected to examine the 2005 accounts of the new Health Service Executive following yesterday's revelation of a €56.4 million miscalculation.
Minister for Finance Brian Cowen told the Dáil yesterday that the HSE had mistakenly believed it had €56.4 million left over from its capital budget for 2005 which it could carry over and spend this year.
This figure had been taken into account in the framing of the Appropriation Act, enacted before Christmas, which allowed for the carry-over of €345.7 million of unspent capital from all Government departments to next year.
However, Mr Cowen said yesterday that last Tuesday week the HSE had told the Department of Health it wished to alter this figure. The Department of Health has said the anticipated capital saving of €56.4 million "may have been used to meet similar-sized costs under the current expenditure heading".