Duplicate €720,000 payment issued by HSE through separate systems, reveals audit report
The Health Service Executive (HSE) has found itself in a troubling situation, with a double payment of over €700,000 for the same invoice from a supplier to two separate parts of the HSE operating at different times. Despite extensive searches, there are no direct reports addressing this specific incident.
In 2016, the HSE entered into a memorandum of agreement with a health insurer regarding accommodation charges for patients with private health insurance. However, the arrangements with suppliers, including this one, were put in place without a competitive procurement process, and they continued annually without being regularized through an appropriate competitive tendering process.
The supplier, who received approximately €15 million up to 2024, has not yet had the overpayment of over €700,000 recovered. The report raises concerns about procurement arrangements and controls over how the money was spent.
Moreover, the HSE paid more than €4 million in payments due from the health insurance industry in respect of subscribers treated in HSE facilities, but these were written off due to delays in submitting bills. For a sample of eight hospitals examined, losses incurred in 2024 as a result of delays in submitting completed claims amounted to €2 million.
The HSE also faces issues with its spending controls. The Comptroller and Auditor General notes that the HSE has not recovered the overpayment, and there is no central record of the total number of units paid for, nor does the HSE know how many of the items paid for were actually used in its hospitals.
Furthermore, the HSE has written off assets in the past. An "asset" constructed in 2009 for €1.4 million and never used for its intended purposes was written off last year, with a cost of €800,000. However, this incident is not mentioned in the report.
The HSE's arrangement with the supplier also involves the supply of diagnostic devices, ancillary supplies, equipment, and information technology support. The risk of bad debts is most relevant in relation to claims from one health insurer, which remains unidentified.
In addition, the report reveals that personal protective equipment worth approximately €22 million and vaccines to the value of approximately €11 million had been written off due to becoming obsolete.
To find more information about this issue, you can check official HSE or government reports, review recent Irish parliamentary records or debates, follow investigative journalism and media reports, or consult official procurement oversight bodies. These sources often highlight issues such as double payments, weaknesses in procurement controls, and financial oversight failures within the HSE.
- The double payment issue raised in the report highlights potential weaknesses in the Health and Wellness sector, specifically the Health Service Executive (HSE), as they struggle to recover an overpayment of €700,000 related to medical-conditions, following non-standard procurement procedures.
- The HSE's financial mismanagement extends beyond double payments, as shown by the writing off of €800,000 for an unused asset and €2 million in losses due to delays in bill submissions, indicating inefficiencies in the Finance and Business operations.
