St John of God asks HSE for €10m after bank turns them down

Emergency funds are requested to maintain its services

THE embattled St John of God charity this week asked for almost €10m in emergency funding from the taxpayer in order to maintain its services, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.

Despite being severely reprimanded in a pending HSE audit into more than €6m in secret and unauthorised top-ups to managers, the charity has told the HSE it needs emergency cash to stay afloat.

The request was discussed in a meeting with the HSE on Friday and comes as the group – which receives €125m annually from the State – is plunged into further controversy

‘Multiple examples of a lack of candour’

as the true scale of governance failures at the charity emerges.

The MoS understands that in recent months it has struggled to secure further finance facilities from its bankers and may have delayed payments to certain suppliers. Asked about this, a spokesman for the charity said it was ‘discharging all of its obligations to its suppliers. It will not comment further.’

Although the entity contracted to the HSE – St John of God Community Services Ltd – is financially strapped, the group and religious order are not short of funds. According to an analysis compiled in 2009 for the Redress Scheme, the order has property assets worth €522m.

Just a week ago, the HSE postponed a scheduled meeting with the charity’s management, saying it could not consider appeals for more money until governance concerns that were first exposed by this newspaper a year ago had been dealt with.

But now that details of the HSE audit into secret payments have entered the public domain, there have been public calls for gardaí to investigate and some public donors are demanding a refund of all of their previous charitable contributions.

It is likely that instead of additional funding the charity may face sanctions for having breached its service agreement with the HSE.

A proportionate percentage of funding can be withheld and requests for additional funding can be denied until non-compliance is addressed.

Conducted by Dr Geraldine Smith, who audited Console last year, the audit is scathing.

‘The multiple examples of lack of candour identified by this audit raise fundamental issues of trust between SJOG and the HSE, its funder,’ it reads.

‘As a Section 38 entity which received a total of €511m from the taxpayer between 2012 and 2015, this is a matter which must be addressed.’

In recent weeks, the charity has written to the Department of Health to outline once again the challenge it is facing in delivering some services at the current level of funding.

When asked about this letter, a HSE spokesperson said the funding concerns raised would be discussed once the internal audit process was complete, along ‘with other matters including finance, governance, compliance with public pay policy and compliance with standards.’

The spokesperson said the HSE was ‘not aware of any intent that SJOG has to withdraw from delivery of HSEfunded health services in general.’

However it is increasingly anticipated in the health sector that the HSE may ultimately sever its relationship with SJOG. Though this would be difficult, the HSE can take over the services provided by the charity and allocate them to another provider.

A spokesman for the charity said it was ‘in regular direct contact with the department and with the HSE’ and that ‘it is not appropriate to comment on the nature of discussions, which are ongoing.’