The North Western Health Board was yesterday accused of breeching protocol for the way in which it set about building a new headquarters in Co Leitrim without seeking approval from the Department of Health. Eithne Donnellan, Health Correspondent, reports.
The final cost of the project, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee heard, is estimated to reach €9.5 million.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Purcell, told the committee that he only learned of the project while auditing the board's accounts for 2001.
The board sought approval from the Department of Health for a loan to finance the project after it had already started it. The loan was turned down but it went ahead with its plans anyway.
Mr Pat Harvey, chief executive of the health board, argued that the building was urgently needed. He told the committee over €4 million of its cost has been offset with the disposal of other properties.
The Southern Health Board was also before the committee yesterday for spending over €1 million on the services of a management consultancy firm without putting the contract out to tender.
The health board's CEO, Mr Sean Hurley, said he used the firm in 1997 and was so impressed with the quality of its work, he contracted it again without tendering.
While he said he was satisfied that its rates were competitive, Mr Purcell stressed this did not "obviate the need to comply with the rules when dealing with taxpayers' money".
Mr Purcell also told the committee of a "serious lapse in governance" by North Tipperary Vocational Education Committee. Its Thurles centre, Coláiste Éile, ran computer courses over a two-year period unknown to the VEC CEO and receipts for the courses, which amounted to over €123,000, were channelled through two unauthorised accounts.
Mr Purcell said he had been assured there had been no misappropriation of funds.