HSE CEO's STATEMENT: THE CHIEF executive of the Health Service Executive (HSE) Cathal Magee has said the significant governance, and financial control failures associated with the administration and funding of the Skill training programme were unacceptable.
Addressing the Dáil Public Accounts Committee yesterday he said that the Skill programme was a worthwhile initiative which had provided for the training needs of more than 7,000 staff.
However, he was highly critical of how this scheme was run and said that the HSE had put in place measures to prevent such breaches occurring in the future.
Mr Magee said the HSE had accounting responsibility for the disbursement of an annual €250,000 grant sanctioned by the Department of Health for Siptu, which ended up in a bank account the union has maintained it knew nothing about. The HSE should have sought clarity from the Department of Health on the issue of the grant and satisfied itself about adequate controls, he said.
He added that it was also clear that HSE regulations in relation to foreign travel were not followed by staff in some cases. "There is evidence of serious breaches of HSE travel regulations, and this is unacceptable. These breaches are the subject of the ongoing HSE internal investigation".
Mr Magee said it was of particular concern that there appeared to have been a systemic failure to adhere to the financial, travel and procurement regulations of the HSE relating both to the Skill programme and the HSE National Partnership Programme.
The secretary general of the Department of Health Michael Scanlan said he accepted the terms on which it had made available funding earmarked for Siptu were not clear and did not adequately inform the Office of Health Management (through which the money was initially channelled) or later the HSE of the outputs expected from it.
In a statement to the Public Accounts Committee he said that the decision in 2004 to use some of the funding for the Skill programme to meet the cost of the ongoing grant to Siptu had served to confuse matter further.
