Health:A report provided by the Health Service Executive to the Department of Health in relation to its spending on information technology in 2006 was so full of errors it was of limited value, the Comptroller and Auditor General has found.
In his latest annual report, John Purcell states that significant amounts of money were misclassified in the HSE's return to the department, some costs were entered twice and some categories of expenditure were not analysed in the level of detail required.
In addition, "non-project expenditure" in 2006 was given in the report as €63 million, which exceeded the sanctioned amount of €58 million.
Mr Purcell observed: "It appeared that the inconsistencies of treatment of expenditure and the level of error were so significant as to greatly limit the value of the return for control purposes."
The HSE explained that there were difficulties "in extracting the information required" for the report. But the C&AG's observations, coming in the wake of the Ppars debacle, will be embarrassing for the HSE. The report notes that significant spending by the HSE on Ppars - the controversial computerised payroll and human resources system for the health service - in 2005 remains unsanctioned.
But it reveals the Department of Finance sanctioned spending of up to €1.5 million by the HSE on "ICT consultancy for Ppars" in December 2006. The board of the HSE has since decided against introducing Ppars across the State. At present Ppars is used in three of the old health board regions only and at St James's Hospital in Dublin
The C&AG's annual report also reveals that the HSE issued three requests for tenders for a number of ICT projects last year without first seeking approval for them from the Department of Finance. Two requests for tenders were also sought by "agencies under the HSE's funding control" - namely St James's Hospital - earlier this year without sanction being obtained from the Department of Finance.
Getting the sanction of the Department of Finance is a requirement since June 2006, when the department withdrew powers from the HSE to spend money on ICT projects without prior approval from it on a case-by-case basis. It withdrew the privilege from the HSE as "there were difficulties in verifying the actual ICT expenditure by the HSE in 2005 and in establishing the planned expenditure for 2006".
Mr Purcell said he was concerned the HSE did not have systems, procedures and practices in place that would allow it to control its ICT spend effectively, and that it appeared to have no coherent ICT strategy.
The HSE, in response, said it had appointed a new head of ICT in November 2006 and set up an ICT expenditure review group. It had issued a warning to staff not to tender for projects without prior approval. And it told the C&AG it would continue to improve its internal systems.