A HSE internal review of the acquisition of ventilators from China at the beginning of the Covid pandemic was unable to establish why 2,755 machines were bought and paid for in advance, when the "identified need" was for just 235 ventilators. “The basis on which the need for 1,900 ventilators as presented to the Department of Health on 21 March 2020 was estimated has not been provided to Internal Audit,” the review said. No contracts with the 10 suppliers commissioned to provide ventilators from China, none of whom had a trading history with the HSE, were provided to the reviewers. Aside from that paper, “no evidence was obtained by Internal Audit of any form of due diligence or risk assessment performed in relation to the other suppliers”, the review found. The internal audit review made three recommendations on the back of its findings, all three of which were rated high, denoting “significant risk of substantial financial loss”, “major non-compliance with procedures”, and requiring “immediate action”.

Source: Irish Examiner September 01, 2021 05:26 UTC