An internal audit for the Health Service Executive has found it had over €14.6m in payroll overpayments recorded at the end of 2023.
The HSE had written off over €909,500 of the amount for the years 2023 and 2022.
For overpayments in excess of €10,000 – the main reasons were employees not taken off the payroll (19% of cases), pension overpayment for an active or deceased person (16%), late entry of unpaid leave (15%), Master Data Error (14%) or sick leave related error.
The HSE said it recouped over €13.2m of the total payments.
There were around 6,800 cases of overpayments over six years up to the end of 2023.
Among the main areas where these occurred were medical/dental, nursing and management/administration.
The audit dated November 2024 was released to RTÉ News and other media under a Freedom of Information request.
Overpayments were written off for a number of factors including if six years had passed, where there had been no acknowledgement from the recipient, or if four years had passed after they were deceased.
The audit said that notwithstanding the increase in the volume of overpayments over recent years, HSE payroll endeavours to communicate with the recipient of the overpayment to ensure timely recovery of funds.
The audit dated November 2024 was conducted to examine the effectiveness of internal controls for identifying such payments, collecting debts and reducing the risk of such overpayments.
It rated the overall level of assurance for management on control of overpayments as “limited”.
The HSE is the largest employer in the State. The audit covered all full-time and part-time HSE staff.
In a statement, the HSE said that the overpayments identified and outstanding as at the end of 2023 represented less than 0.2% of the annual payroll cost.
At the start of 2023, the total payroll overpayments balance was €8.5m.
That year, there was over €7.8m in new payroll overpayments identified and over €5.1m was recouped, with €520,559 written off. It left a total payroll overpayments balance of over €10.5m at the end of that year.
That €10.5m was carried over to the start of 2023. A further €12.7m in payroll overpayments were identified that year. During the year, €8m was recouped and €388,958 was written off. It left a total payroll overpayments closing balance of €14.6m for 2023.
The audit said that in 2023, a payroll overpayment portal was introduced in each HSE payroll site and it was fully rolled out in August 2023.
The HSE said it takes the issue very seriously and works to minimise overpayments.
