Charges paid to Beaumont Hospital by private consultants using its laboratory facilities were at least €2.7 million less than the cost of providing the service, the Dail Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said today.
Delivering its fourth interim report on aspects of the health service, the PAC considered a number of irregularities at Beaumont that included the price paid by a private clinic at the north Dublin hospital for use of the laboratory.
The PAC said that between 1998 and 2002 consultants at the clinic each paid €120 per year rent for lab facilities. However, the cost of providing the service was around €2,600 per consultant annually.
"The amounts involved bear no relation to the economic cost of providing the services," the PAC report found.
The committee, under the chairmanship of former Fine Gael leader Michael Noonan, recommended that any support services to private consultants should be on a "full-cost, arms-length basis".
It also recommended the hospital's internal auditor should be entitled to report to the board of the hospital without the ceo being present.
The recommendation emerged from control weaknesses involved in the procurement procedures identified in 2001, when it was discovered that contracts had been awarded by the hospital when a bogus public tendering competition had taken place.
The head of the technical service department (TSD) at the hospital resigned after the affair and the misuse of special request authorisations emerged in 2001. It also emerged during the controversy that the incumbent had falsified his references when getting the job.
The report noted the hospital has put new procedures in place.
The PAC also expressed concern about a potential tax liability that may be incurred by the hospital over its arrangements for operating a car park in its grounds. It found, however, that previous arrangements with the operator which were not financially favourable to the hospital had been rectified.