Theft of money from Simon by employee not notified to HSE, audits reveal

Dublin Simon Community failed to notify the Health Service Executive as required after an employee stole more than €37,000, an audit report has found.

The theft of €37,713 in cash and cheques was discovered by Simon in November 2021, weeks after it had happened, and was notified to the board of the charity, the Garda Síochána and the Charities Regulator.

However, the homeless charity breached its reporting requirement, under a service level agreement with the HSE, by not reporting the theft, according to a HSE internal audit report. The organisation receives more than €5 million in funding from the HSE yearly.

Simon management said the incident was not reported to the HSE because the money which had been stolen came from unrestricted funds. It has since implemented stricter controls to strengthen the cheque- and cash-handling process.

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Auditors also noted that one director had been in place on the board of the charity for 19 years, and that this was not in accordance with its governance manual. Simon has since rotated this director and now no member has been on the board for longer than four years.

The report was one of a batch of audit reports released by the HSE on Monday under Freedom of Information legislation.

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Barely one-third of senior HSE staff had complied with ethics requirement by filing a statement of interests or a Nil return, a separate report found.

HSE employees earning more than €70,000 a year occupy designated positions and are required to file statements of interest under the Ethics in Public Office Acts.

In 2021, there were 7,431 staff in designated positions, but 4,731 of these made no return. Just 110 filed a statement of interests, while 2,590 filed a Nil return.

Auditors tested a sample of 25 current employees and found 40 per cent had submitted a return. Only 36 per cent of all employees submitted a statement of interests or Nil return in 2021.

A sample of 15 staff who left the HSE that year was tested and it was found that none had filed a return.

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A review of a sample of filed statements of interest found that in 40 per cent of cases, verbal assurances were accepted in lieu of completed review forms.

In a separate report, University of Limerick Hospital Group’s compliance with children-first legislation was rated unsatisfactory after auditors determined that two-thirds of staff had not signed a declaration saying they understood the policy and only 60 per cent were trained in it.

Auditors rated the compliance of Wexford General Hospital with guidelines on foetal heart monitoring as unsatisfactory, noting that in half of the cases examined there was no peer review of the CTG traces in earlier stages of labour.

Meanwhile, the Irish Men’s Sheds Association was found to be non-compliant with statutory filing deadlines and the requirements of its service-level agreement with the HSE.

Records of travel and subsistence payments to staff were not maintained in a satisfactory manner and duplicate payments made to one person were not identified promptly.