Report into HSE ventilator spend recommends guidelines on advance payments
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Practical guidelines should be put in place for public bodies around advance payments, according to a new report from the Comptroller and Auditor General into the purchase by the HSE of ventilators during the covid-19 pandemic.
The report examines advance payments worth millions of euro to suppliers and sources in China for ventilators, many of which were never delivered.
The HSE is currently in dispute with Irish company Roqu in relation to a deal struck for ventilators near the beginning of the pandemic as the country was experiencing its first lockdown.
Some €14.1m was paid to Roqu for the contract, which saw a limited number of ventilators delivered to Ireland by the end of April 2020. The delivered machines did not meet the quality assurance standards set by the HSE and were never deployed in a clinical setting.
The C&AG special report, due to be published later, makes one recommendation to the Office of Government Procurement through the Department of Public Expenditure, which was accepted.
It recommends specific guidance be put in place in various areas around the use of advance payments, as well as practical guidance for public bodies in this area generally.
This is not the first time the C&AG has made similar recommendations.
Apart from the machines sourced from Roqu, the HSE was able to procure 581 ventilators which was nearly twice the estimated number that was clinically required and that could be used.
Having originally sought to purchase ventilators similar to those used in Irish intensive care units, the HSE then decided to purchase models of a lower technical specification but which met the World Health Organization specifications for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.
The Department of Health sanctioned the purchase of 1,900 ventilators, on foot of a HSE request, on 21 March 2020 at an estimated cost of €73.5m, or €38,700 per ventilator.
The C&AG did not find a business case prepared by the HSE to support the requirement for so many ventilators. What was sought appeared to have been based on the orders that the HSE had already placed with potential suppliers and orders where negotiations had reached an advanced stage.
In the period between March 3, 2020 and 14 April 2020, the HSE placed orders for almost 3,500 ventilators at a cost of €129m. This was 10 times the estimated number clinically required.
On 20 March 2020, the HSE wrote to the departments of health and public expenditure requesting approval to contractually commit for up to 1,900 ventilators while stating further approval would be sought in writing for any purchased above and beyond that.
However, it’s understood the C&AG has found that weekly expenditure reports sent by the HSE to the departments only included expenditure for ventilators that had been delivered and did not include the payments in advance and refunds received from cancelled orders.
It was found this negated the departments’ oversight of the expenditure and was misleading.
The full report is due to be published later today.