The unpublished HSE audit into the controversial Skill training programme has found that fundamental elements of internal control were not in place and that there were serious shortcomings in relation to areas such as governance, funding and foreign travel arrangements.
The audit, which will be considered by the Dáil Public Accounts Committee on Thursday maintains that there had been a significant number of breaches of public sector requirements and HSE policies and procedures in relation to procurement, utilisation of health service contracts, reimbursement of personal mobile phone costs, hotel expenses, taxi usage, public sector recruitment obligations, maintenance of personnel records, superannuation commitments and data protection obligations.
Among the specific findings of the report were that no financial records for travel or hotel costs were kept in relation to foreign travel to the US, Australia, Hong Kong and the UK.
It says that one trade union employee arranged and paid for overseas travel for public officials and others and subsequently either claimed back unvouched and unspecified costs from the Skill programme or funded it through a grant that the union received from the Department of Health.
It also reveals that relatives of personnel associated with the Skill programme were directed to a recruitment agency, which then placed two people on temporary contracts with the Skills office.
The relative of one was subsequently appointed to a full-time HSE post and consequently placed on the HSE payroll without either an internal or external competition taking place.
The audit also sets out that one former employee was awarded a HSE pension even though €75,000 had already been paid into a private pension plan.
The report also highlights what it describes as excessive use of taxis associated with the Skill programme. It finds that between 2006 and 2009 one quarter of all taxi journeys, a total of 83, had taken place outside of office hours.
It says that 74 taxi journeys were made between the hours of 7.00pm and 4.00am “mainly to and from hotels, restaurants and pubs”.