The Health Service Executive (HSE) is to suspend work on another large computer project that could cost up to €200 million, amid concerns about its similarities in design with the controversial PPARs system, writes Liam Reid, Political Reporter.
The board of the HSE is expected to act today on a recommendation to stop work on FISP, a sister system to the PPARs system, which has already cost €30 million and which is aimed at creating a central financial management and budget system for the health services.
It comes amid further revelations about the €165 million PPARs payroll and staff records system, after it emerged that one of the country's top hospital managers said there were "monumental concerns" about how the project was being operated and managed, and said PPARs threatened the fundamental operation of the hospital.
The primary concern about FISP, the Financial Information Systems Project, is that it is based on the same computer and management system as PPARs and involves the same consultants used, Deloitte.
Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, who came under sustained attack in the Dáil from Fine Gael and Labour on his handling of the controversy, told the House that consultants on PPARs had been paid too much, while Tánaiste and Minister for Health Mary Harney described the payments as "extraordinary and excessive".
In June computer experts from the Department of Finance outlined serious concerns about FISP in a memo to the Department of Health. The memo focused primarily on the PPARs issue.
They had "serious concerns at the nature and cost of the support services" being provided by Deloitte, which has been paid €13.5 million in 2005 alone.
"We could not determine from the meeting what the nature of the value added being provided by Deloitte was," the memo said.
There was also "no evidence" that the PPARs system, which has already cost €116 million, would reduce costs or increase efficiency. Deloitte has refused to comment.
The memo also ordered the Department of Health to carry out a fundamental appraisal of PPARs.
"The Department of Finance has similar concerns in relation to FISP and urgently requires a similar analysis of the options for this system," the memo stated.
Informed sources said the move today to suspend FISP is precautionary, and that the project is on time and on budget.
The project has been in existence for five years but has only begun full implementation in the last year, and involves a small core group. Senior HSE management have been informed that if fully implemented, it could lead to annual savings of €80 million.
Yesterday it emerged that the chief executive of St James's Hospital, the only voluntary hospital involved in PPARs, raised serious issues about the system. John O'Brien warned the HSE in a letter last June that PPARs should not be rolled out to other health boards.
The letter, which was obtained by Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, said the "standard of central governance, management and operation of the PPARs initiative raises monumental concerns regarding the performance of the system".
Mr O'Brien, now a key adviser to the chief executive of the HSE, Brendan Drumm, who has recommended the suspension of PPARs and FISP, said St James's was "not willing to continue with an arrangement which clearly threatens its basic functioning".
In a debate on public money waste in the Dáil last night, the Minister for Health said too many consultants were being employed on State projects and that they should only be used as "a real exception". The hiring of consultants had "unfortunately become the norm".
Ms Harney said there was a "huge jumble of waste and incoherence" among the 11 health boards before the establishment of the HSE earlier this year, with thousands of different rosters and employment conditions for staff.
"No computer system could possibly deal with the complexity and the irrationality of what was happening on the ground," she said.