Disability organisation breached rules by using HSE funding for legal and consultancy services

The investigation into Waterford Intellectual Disability Association, a Section 39 organisation with 132 staff, was carried out by the HSE’s internal audit team earlier this year. It criticised spending controls over legal and consultancy fees in the organisation, which received €6.1m in HSE funding. Auditors also found “significant conflict between the board and management”.

The audit report said the governance and internal control systems in the organisation were unsatisfactory.

It said: “There was no evidence provided of any concerns over the quality or level of service provided and there does not seem to be a past history of budget overspending. However, there is extensive conflict between board members and the management team, which has resulted in a wide-ranging industrial relations dispute.”

Legal advice from January to May this year came to €111,546, while consultancy invoices for the period January 2022 to May 2023 amounted to €72,775.

Total legal and consultancy spending between January 2022 and May 2023 was €184,321. This was the known amount but it would grow substantially through future invoices.

There was no evidence of the board discussing the selection process for consultants or legal firms. One consulting firm was paid €66,133 and there were questions on the validity of invoices.

The auditors could not secure evidence on the validity of other payments worth €28,214 and another of €14,637 to consultancy firms.

The organisation has since agreed to an implementation plan to address the issues, which was accepted by the local HSE community healthcare area in August.

In a separate report from the HSE’s internal audit division into the collection of money due to Portiuncula Hospital in Galway from patients, it was found some consultants were taking up to 256 days to submit invoices for €166,158 to private health insurance companies when they should have been sent within 30 days.

In other cases, sums of €120,024 owed by private patients over three years had to be foregone because the consultants were not on the specialist register of the Medical Council.

Another audit looked at a sample of travel and subsistence payments in the HSE’s community area overseeing south Tipperary, Carlow, Kilkenny and Waterford, which gave €7.8m to staff in these payments in 2022.

It found not all claims were being reviewed before approval by line managers. Expense claims were not completed in full and claims were not being submitted within three months.

One employee claimed €3,000 from November 2021 to April 2022 and just gave the reason as “outreach”. Another employee claimed €1,500 for subsistence at the five-hour rate but details provided were less than five hours.

No receipts were available for a sum of €912 claimed.

Meanwhile, another audit showed staff in the HSE community care area covering Clare, Limerick, north Tipperary and east Limerick have a very low participation in a work performance scheme, with just 9pc participating. Just 354 out of 3,771 staff took part in the exercise.