Almost €3mn overspend on change of Beaumont Hospital payroll demands answers
Almost €3mn overspend on change of Beaumont Hospital payroll demands answers - The Labour Party
Labour TD and member of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee Eoghan Kenny has expressed his concern that a failure to go to tender for a change in payroll systems in Beaumont Hospital has resulted in an almost €3mn overspend of tax payers money.
Speaking following the Committee, Deputy Kenny said it is disgraceful that Board members had to be asked about this process, rather than providing the information relating to the overspend in their submissions to the Committee.
Deputy Kenny said:
“Under questioning from me in the PAC today, members of the Board of Beaumont Hospital admitted that they did not go to tender for a new payroll process in 2020, and this has resulted in an overspend of almost €3 million.
“Initially, the change of payroll was predicted to cost €1.9 million, however the final cost came in at €4.3 million.
“This matter would have been swept under the carpet had staff members in the hospital not made me aware of this massive overspend of taxpayers money.
“No reference was made to this overspend in the documentation provided to the Public Accounts Committee ahead of today’s hearing.
“There is a culture within hospitals of burying the details rather than being upfront with the people. There appears to be a death of accountability and oversight within the board at Beaumont. The very fact that they did not flag this exorbitant overspend is an absolute disgrace.
“Is there more that we are unaware of? Politicians cannot ask questions if they are not provided with full and transparent information relating to the spending of tax payers money. There are serious questions to be answered by the board of Beaumont on this, and potentially other matters.”