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A prominent Dáil committee has harshly criticized HSE’s response to a request for information on procurement practices as “disappointing and unacceptable.”
In response to a request for details on the amount of its unpaid expenses that are deemed to be non-compliant with public regulations, the HSE told the previous Public Accounts Committee that it was unable to comply as its acquisitions rely on “multiple legacy systems. “. .
The executive said he expected to be in a position to carry out most of his expenses through one system within four years.
The new PAC will meet to elect a vice president and will consider his delay in correspondence tomorrow morning at Leinster House.
Under scrutiny will be the response of HSE’s deputy national director of parliamentary affairs, Ray Mitchell, regarding the level of hiring within the executive that does not meet public procurement standards.
Mr. Mitchell’s response, delivered to the committee on January 10, indicated that because HSE does not have a single finance and procurement system, it does not “have full visibility of all procurement-related activities.”
“As a result (the) HSE is not in a position to provide the information requested by the Committee regarding the number of contracts in default and the reasons for them,” said the response.
It said the HSE “has a plan” to have about 80% of its procurement expenses covered by a single system by the first quarter of 2024.
Committee chair Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley said the response is “disappointing and unacceptable, as the HSE is one of the biggest spenders of taxpayer money on acquisitions.”
“This is something that I think we should follow up with the HSE,” Stanley said tonight.
It is vital that HSE achieves a better deal with private hospitals this winter than it did this summer. Most important of all, we need to see more investment in the ability of public hospitals to provide the best value for taxpayer money. pic.twitter.com/8cwzHysymF
– Brian Stanley (@BrianStanleyTD) September 23, 2020
Public procurement in Ireland is governed by Irish and EU rules. Examples of non-compliant contracts include those awarded without a competitive process, those without an unwarranted tender procedure, or those designed so that only certain applicants can succeed.
In 2018, the Comptroller and Auditor General, the state accountant, found that just under a quarter of HSE spending from the “sample areas”, or € 15.2 million, was not eligible. In 2016, the figure was 49%, although based on a sample of expenses much lower than 30.8 million euros, with a total of non-compliance of 15.1 million euros.
The HSE said it had, at the time, 1,500 contracts and frameworks in place. He said that to improve its compliance it had “established a Procurement Compliance Unit and is actively working with those responsible for the budget to determine its compliance profile.”
It’s unclear how the Covid-19 crisis will have affected those procurement figures, given the unmanageable and unprecedented nature of the billions of euros in state spending approved since early March.
Personal protective equipment (PPE) alone will cost HSE € 1 billion next year, according to HSE CEO Paul Reid.
The HSE response was to have been initially considered by the PAC at its meeting scheduled for January 23 of this year. However, the meeting never took place after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called a general election on January 14.
Regarding the PAC vice chair issue, Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy and Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carrol McNeill are believed to be favorites, with veteran Rep. Murphy likely to be the favorite to win.
The request for visibility regarding the executive’s acquisitions was one of a series of similar requests made to state agencies at the time.
A similar request from St James’s Hospital in Dublin, for example, showed that 31%, or € 38 million, of that institution’s unpaid expenses in 2018 was deemed non-compliant.
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