DHBs estimate cost of years of payroll breaches

WELLINGTON: Several district health boards have come up with multimilliondollar estimates of what it will cost to fix years of payroll breaches.

But the true picture is only expected to emerge from this point on, as a nationally agreed way of auditing the DHBs begins.

The Northland DHB is first up, and the board and unions are working together using the national guidelines — which took three years to agree on — to arrive at a firm figure of who is owed how much, stretching back to 2010, because of miscalculations of shift allowances and leave.

Northland estimated earlier this year the full fix would cost it $16.5 million.

The Hawke’s Bay DHB’s estimate was $7 million, pushing its deficit in 201819 to $28 million; and the MidCentral DHB’s estimate was $4.2 million.

Many other DHBs appear not to have made such estimates and are instead waiting for their turn under the nationwide audit.

However, one party to the Northland audit, the Association of Professional and Executive Employees, said the early signs were the DHB’s previous estimate was too low.

‘‘Now we have an agreed set of principles [to audit by], the figures may be different, and what we are finding in Northland is they probably are,’’ association spokeswoman Deborah Powell said.

The NelsonMarlborough DHB used the Northland DHB’s previous estimates, and put its own exposure at $8.5 million, a key factor in a blowout of its deficit this year to $20 million.

The unions were also finding it was taking quite some time to apply the nationally agreed way of auditing at Northland, raising the prospect of further delays in staff being paid what they were owed, Dr Powell said.

Next up is the Auckland DHB, where the audit is beginning as part of a staggered rollout designed to lessen the huge strain on resources including payroll industry expertise. — RNZ