Opinion: as a new RTÉ Investigates report shows, public bodies here are still not doing enough to address corruption-related risks
The RTÉ Investigation Unit's 2015 report alleging that health procurement officials received gifts and holidays from medical supply company Eurosurgical Ltd led to the usual political outcry, as well as promises of procurement reform by the HSE.
But RTÉ's most recent investigation shows that the HSE continued to award contracts to Eurosurgical even after its bribery was exposed. In fact, purchases by HSE hospitals from the company increased by 15% year on year in the six months after the 2015 RTÉ Investigates exposé. It might also suggest that Government and the wider public service are not paying enough attention to compliance risks and standards in our public service.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's News At One, RTE Investigates reporter Paul Murphy on how the HSE hiked spending with firm that bribed hospital staff
Last month, Transparency International Ireland published the latest study in a series on anti-corruption measures in Irish organisations. The National Integrity Index (NII) Public Bodies report showed that while most public bodies had policies and procedures in place to meet their legal obligations to account for public spending, very few did little beyond the bare minimum to address the risk of malpractice.
Indeed, the study found that 95% (38 out of 40) of the public bodies assessed for the study did not publish adequate anti-corruption due diligence procedures for suppliers and other third parties engaged in transactions with those public bodies.
This is in spite of clear provisions under Irish corruption law that expose directors of Irish companies and public bodies to prosecution for 'wilful neglect’ in not preventing a corruption offence. These provisions also protect those same directors and management against prosecution if they can show that they ‘took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid the commission of the offence’.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's This Week in 2019, John Devitt from Transparency International Ireland calls for tougher measures to tackle corruption in business and public life.
The lack of adequate anti-corruption controls is especially a concern given public bodies procure an estimated €17 billion in goods and services each year. The risk of wrongdoing is particularly acute where their suppliers are chosen without background checks to determine whether they have ever had judgements made against them by Revenue, have been placed under Garda investigation, or are keeping proper books of accounts.
It is equally important that suppliers make commitments prohibiting the giving of gifts and entertainment to public officials. The Eurosurgical controversy gave rise to the reasonable presumption that health officials could be influenced in the award of public contracts to the same company that was paying for their gifts and holidays.
With an annual procurement budget of more than €4 billion, the HSE is the single biggest purchaser of goods and services in the State. Overall, it fares relatively well in comparison to other public bodies on the National Integrity Index, with a total transparency score of 62%. However, there have been well-publicised concerns over the award of public contracts by the agency and there is clearly still room for improvement in its anti-corruption procedures. These include the need to publish procedures for the receipt of gifts and hospitality for all health sector employees, and details of all large contracts awarded by it.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland in 2016, John Devitt from Transparency International Ireland on the findings of a new survey on attitudes to whistleblowers in Ireland
Deficient anti-corruption controls are not unique to Ireland's health service. The average overall transparency score for public bodies in TI Ireland’s study was 49%. Nor are corruption risks confined to government procurement. For example, the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) which had disposed of almost €40 billion in asset and loan sales by 2020 does not publish third-party due diligence procedures to address corruption risks. This is in spite of TI Ireland’s call to introduce enhanced due diligence procedures for buyers of loans disposed by it in the wake of the Project Eagle controversy in 2016.
The Eurosurgical controversy was exposed by a whistleblower at the company who reported his concerns to the gardaí in 2014. In late 2015, the gardaí said there was insufficient evidence to proceed with a criminal prosecution. Yet the whistleblower's experience and the controversy that still surrounds the HSE's awarding of contracts could easily have been avoided if the agency engaged in thorough and ongoing due diligence of its suppliers.
READ: What protections do whistleblowers have under Irish and EU law?
The tendency in Irish public life is to do little to prevent a crisis and then when it happens, pledge to prevent it happening in the future. Promises are made that 'lessons will be learnt’ and after the public’s attention moves on, those promises (and the lessons) are soon forgotten.
This absurd ritual undermines public confidence in government and our public representatives. When safeguards are overlooked in public procurement, scarce public resources can be diverted towards private interests and away from where they are needed the most. The failure to mitigate risk also means that public officials can claim to have fixed a problem that they would have never got credit for fixing had they prevented it in the first place. In other words, it is easier to claim credit for cleaning up a mess than avoiding it.
Therefore, if we are to break this vicious cycle and remove the perverse incentives enabling it, the public service needs to promote corruption management and fraud risk-management as a key indicator of performance for its officials. Public and civil servants need to be incentivised to proactively highlight risk, communicate it and identify measures to address it. Ministers should be called to report to the Oireachtas on how their departments and the bodies under their aegis are performing against these risk management plans. Only then, can we lift some of the burden off individuals to speak out or to take a lonely stand against malpractice, and thereby reduce the huge costs associated with that malpractice for our citizens.
Watch the RTÉ Investigates report tonight on Prime Time at 9:35pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
