Five HSE staff overpaid nearly €300,000, audit finds

Five Health Service Executive staff received overpayments amounting to nearly €300,000 between them, according to an internal audit report which examined personnel files.

The overpayments arose from how the staff were appointed to acting-up roles over recent years or subsequently regularised into higher positions, internal auditors found.

In one case, an individual received a total overpayment of more than €70,000 while two others received overpayments of more than €61,000.

HSE corporate management told internal auditors that there may have been "systemic" issues at play that would raise legitimate concerns.

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Thousands of staff across the health service had undertaken acting-up posts when the official moratorium on employment was in place. A process to regularise such staff into a higher post was put in place after the Haddington Road agreement was reached in October 2013 and on foot of other talks between unions and management.

Audit findings

However, a new HSE internal audit into the regulation of posts in the Dublin/North East and Dublin/Mid-Leinster regions has made highly critical findings.

Overall the audit identified:

* Inconsistent applications of controls in initial acting-up appointments resulting in significant overpayments;

* Non-adherence to the terms of the regularisation process;

* A lack of documentary evidence to support cases for regularisation, resulting in overpayments

* Inconsistency in dealing with applications; and

* Use of the regularisation process for a purpose not intended such as to regrade posts.

The auditors said on foot of its examination of a sample of cases, there was “no evidence of review, sign-off or sanction to acting up in the majority of cases”.

“There was no evidence that regional managers reviewed documentation in relation to the back-up for the regularisation application.”

Also. “In one instance, it was specifically noted in an email from one HR manager to another that ‘while the relevant national director may not be familiar with the details of the cases being presented, the applications should still be forwarded to them for sign-off’.”

The report maintained the HR manager said: “This has been the approach of other HSE regions and would be appropriate in terms of audit compliance.”

Auditors examined the files of 74 personnel and discovered overpayments in 24 cases (33 per cent of them).

Higher-grade scale

“As at June 30th, 2017, the top five overpayments amounted to €298,724. The overpayment arose because some employees incorrectly received increments on the scale of the post they were acting into throughout the years and were incorrectly regularised on the maximum point of the higher-grade scale when the position was regularised. This led to inequity in the treatment of employees. These overpayments need to be recouped by the HSE.”

The audit report said there were instances where employees were upgraded when there was no vacant post being acted into. In one instance, an employee had been placed on a salary scale which was no longer in existence at the time of the appointment and there was no evidence of a vacant post in existence.

It said in another case overtime was paid instead of an allowance.

The audit said that, in one of the sample cases examined, an employee was appointed to act up into a higher position and the salary awarded was at the top of the higher scale while an additional personal allowance was also paid.

“This represented an increase in salary of €30,530 per annum and was inconsistent with the treatment of other employees whose allowances were based on the difference between their substantive salary and the minimum point of the higher scale in line with the guidelines.”