News
Call for acting Saolta CEO to step down in wake of report
The acting CEO of Saolta University Healthcare Group is facing calls to resign this week after a HSE investigation identified his role in awarding contracts to a service provider without a competitive tendering process.
Maurice Power was the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the hospital group when services were procured from Northgate in respect of six separate projects with a total value of €393,231.
Then-CEO Bill Maher worked for Northgate as a consultant and was in receipt of fees during the procurement process of certain services from the company. The HSE investigation found that “it would appear that a potential conflict of interests existed in respect of these contracts”.
It also concluded that contracts between Saolta and Northgate had been awarded in breach of procurement regulations.
Cllr Padraig Conneely has now said that Mr Power’s position is untenable in light of the report, and he intends to call for the acting CEO’s resignation at the next meeting of the Regional Health Forum.
The final report of the investigation details Mr Power’s role in the secondment of an IT project manager from Northgate in 2012 at a cost of €148,445. No quotes were obtained from alternative suppliers for this service.
The report states that Mr Power was a member of the group’s IT Steering Committee, which approved a request for assistance with project management from the Information Services Manager.
Mr Maher told the investigation that he had “no involvement in this procurement”. He stated that there was no framework for the appointment of agency IT staff and that “the CFO (Mr Power) considered this to be the only practical alternative”.
As the value of the contract exceeded €50,000, a minimum of five sealed tenders should have been sought in accordance with relevant procurement regulations.
“Therefore this arrangement with Northgate contravenes National Financial Regulations,” the report states.
“In addition, this expenditure was not disclosed to the Comptroller and Auditor General in line with Circular 40/02,” it concludes.
Mr Power told the investigation that there was no framework for the recruitment of agency IT staff at the time, and disputed that the service was linked to another contract that was awarded without a procurement process.
“This was in essence the recruitment of an IT project manager. We did look to see if there was a framework in place nationally to source IT staff but this is only happening now in 2015. Can we seek clarity where there is no framework in place?” he stated.
“The section above [in the report] which refers to the extension of the CIMS project I believe to be an error on behalf of Northgate in their quote as I clearly understood this to be the secondment of the IT Project Manager and unrelated to the CIMS,” he added.
Cllr Conneely described the HSE report as “damning” and “an insight into the chaos and dysfunction within the upper layers of management at the hospital group”.
“The report has laid bare that contracts were awarded to a company with which the then-CEO had an active business relationship. Maurice Power, the CFO at the time, was necessarily involved in these transactions,” he said.
“The report particularly highlights his role in the secondment of an IT project manager who was paid almost €150,000 without any procurement process, and this was not disclosed to the Comptroller and Auditor General.
“I have continuously raised this matter with senior management of the group over the past two years but I have been repeatedly rebuffed. I am pleased that this insight has finally emerged.
“I believe his position as acting CEO is untenable in light of the report and I will be calling for him to step down at the next meeting of the Regional Health Forum,” added Cllr Conneely.
Significant state investment is required to address ‘shocking’ inequalities that leave cancer patients in the West at greater risk of succumbing to the disease.
A meeting of Regional Health Forum West heard that survival rates for breast, lung and colorectal cancers than the national average, and with the most deprived quintile of the population, the West’s residents faced poorer outcomes from a cancer diagnosis.
For breast cancer patients, the five-year survival rate was 80% in the West versus 85% nationally; for lung cancer patients it was 16.7% in the west against a 19.5% national survival rate; and in the West’s colorectal cancer patients, there was a 62.6% survival rate where the national average was 63.1%.
These startling statistics were provided in answer to a question from Ballinasloe-based Cllr Evelyn Parsons (Ind) who said it was yet another reminder that cancer treatment infrastructure in the West was in dire need of improvement.
“The situation is pretty stark. In the Western Regional Health Forum area, we have the highest incidence of deprivation and the highest health inequalities because of that – we have the highest incidences of cancer nationally because of that,” said Cllr Parsons, who is also a general practitioner.
In details provided by CEO of Saolta Health Care Group, which operates Galway’s hospitals, it was stated that a number of factors were impacting on patient outcomes.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
On the eve of completing his 150th marathon, an odyssey that has taken him across 53 countries, Loughrea’s Marathon Man has announced that he is planning to hang up his running shoes.
But not before Jarlath Fitzgerald completes another ten races, making it 160 marathons on the occasion of his 60th birthday.
“I want to draw the line in 2026. I turn 57 in October and when I reach 60 it’s the finishing line. The longer races are taking it out of me. I did 20 miles there two weeks ago and didn’t feel good. It’s getting harder,” he reveals.
“I’ve arthritis in both hips and there’s wear and tear in the knees.”
We speak as he is about to head out for a run before his shift in Supervalu Loughrea. Despite his physical complaints, he still clocks up 30 miles every second week and generally runs four days a week.
Jarlath receives injections to his left hip to keep the pain at bay while running on the road.
To give his joints a break, during the winter he runs cross country and often does a five-mile trek around Kylebrack Wood.
He is planning on running his 150th marathon in Cork on June 4, where a group of 20 made up of work colleagues, friends and running mates from Loughrea Athletics Club will join him.
Some are doing the 10k, others are doing the half marathon, but all will be there on the finishing line to cheer him on in the phenomenal achievement.
Get the full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune, on sale in shops now, or you can download the digital edition from www.connachttribune.ie. You can also download our Connacht Tribune App from Apple’s App Store or get the Android Version from Google Play.
From the Galway City Tribune – An impassioned plea for a ‘masterplan’ that would guide Galway City into the future has been made in the Dáil. Galway West TD Catherine Connolly stated this week that there needed to be an all-inclusive approach with “vision and leadership” in order to build a sustainable city.
Deputy Connolly spoke at length at the crisis surrounding traffic and housing in Galway city and said that not all of the blame could be laid at the door of the local authority.
She said that her preference would be the provision of light rail as the main form of public transport, but that this would have to be driven by the government.
“I sat on the local council for 17 years and despaired at all of the solutions going down one road, metaphorically and literally. In 2005 we put Park & Ride into the development plan, but that has not been rolled out. A 2016 transport strategy was outdated at the time and still has not been updated.
“Due to the housing crisis in the city, a task force was set up in 2019. Not a single report or analysis has been published on the cause of the crisis,” added Deputy Connolly.
She then referred to a report from the Land Development Agency (LDA) that identified lands suitable for the provision of housing. But she said that two-thirds of these had significant problems and a large portion was in Merlin Park University Hospital which, she said, would never have housing built on it.
In response, Minister Simon Harris spoke of the continuing job investment in the city and also in higher education, which is his portfolio.
But turning his attention to traffic congestion, he accepted that there were “real issues” when it came to transport, mobility and accessibility around Galway.
“We share the view that we need a Park & Ride facility and I understand there are also Bus Connects plans.
“I also suggest that the City Council reflect on her comments. I am proud to be in a Government that is providing unparalleled levels of investment to local authorities and unparalleled opportunities for local authorities to draw down,” he said.
Then Minister Harris referred to the controversial Galway City Outer Ring Road which he said was “struck down by An Bord Pleanála”, despite a lot of energy having been put into that project.
However, Deputy Connolly picked up on this and pointed out that An Bord Pleanála did not say ‘No’ to the ring road.
“The High Court said ‘No’ to the ring road because An Bord Pleanála acknowledged it failed utterly to consider climate change and our climate change obligations.
“That tells us something about An Bord Pleanála and the management that submitted such a plan.”
In the end, Minister Harris agreed that there needed to be a masterplan for Galway City.
“I suggest it is for the local authority to come up with a vision and then work with the Government to try to fund and implement that.”
Families queue up for school’s offer of free house
West has lower cancer survival rates than rest
Galway minors continue to lay waste to all opponents
Gardaí and IFA issue a joint appeal on summer road safety
Marathon Man plans to call a halt – but not before he hits 160 races
