The information on the table and related notes below should be read in conjunction with the main body of these regulation (e.g. “Mandatory controls within Purchasing” and ‘Confirmation of availability funds and approval to Spend’ and the related appendices .
The expenditure approval levels are the minimum controls. They act as maximum limits and not “entitlements” - therefore it is open to any budget holder nominating an expenditure approver to assign them a lower than standard approval limit if in their judgement this is necessary
Example ; A LHO manager may have seven Grade Vll within their area of responsibility. He/she may decide that it is appropriate to have four of the seven given approval authority as follows; Routine expenditure up to € 40,000 and Non Routine expenditure up to € 5,000 (versus €50,000 and € 10,000 respectively in accordance with Table 2 of per these regulations).
2) Procurement Contracts
The approval of a procurement contract is separate to any expenditure approval associated with same and different authority thresholds apply to approval of procurement contracts and to expenditure approval. A person authorised to approve procurement contracts does not need to be linked to the respective budget holder.
Example 1. – HSE signs a €4m 3 year contract for the purchase of PC’s – this is not an expenditure approval as expenditure approval takes place when each manager in the system buys X number of pc’s from the contract – the approval of this procurement contract at €4m requires sign-off by someone at Hospital Network Manager / Assistant National Director or above.
Example 2. – HSE signs a €600,000 contract for the purchase of an X-ray machine for Connolly Hospital – the approval of the procurement contract is in effect also an expenditure approval as most likely the two happen at the same time – technically the procurement contract can be approved by the Hospital Network Manager as it less than €5m but the expenditure approval required before the X-Ray order is actually placed requires sign-off by a National Director via the capital project protocol as it is a non-routine revenue expenditure item in excess of €500,000.
Procurement contracts exclude contracts relating to property or capital projects as these are dealt with in specific separate protocols.
3) `Routine’ and ‘Non Routine’ Expenditure.
Routine expenditure relates to decisions to approve expenditure in respect of goods or services consumed on a day to day basis to support the provision of existing services. The approval of existing level of service budgets with voluntary / not for profit organisations including any pay award or other “technical” adjustments falls within the definition of routine revenue expenditure approval. Formal sign-off of the budget by the Directorate will provide effective expenditure / contract approval for voluntary / not for profit organisations over the €10m limit including the large voluntary hospitals and this will need to be made clear to the Directorate and any legal considerations dealt with.
Non Routine expenditure relates to;
New or expanded level of service – HSE or with Voluntary Organisations
Purchase of new equipment paid from revenue funds
Capital Projects ( refer to ‘Capital Projects Approval Protocol’)
Property Transactions ( refer to ‘Protocol for Acquisition and Disposal of Property’) Example – A LHO is formally allocated €1.4m from the €30m 2006 Elderly Development funds for Home Help by A Browne/National Care Group Steering Cttee on Elderly. Then the LHO manager has effective expenditure approval for that amount of new / expanded service, subject to the overriding need to have an effective breakeven plan in place before any service developments can take place.
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It is expected that the commissioning of new services will primarily be done in a controlled way via the service planning process and therefore funding allocations will in effect come with expenditure approval.
4) Capital Projects and Property Transactions.
The thresholds for expenditure approval within the table apply to all non payroll related expenditure except for;
Capital Projects and
Property Transactions both of which are governed by respective protocols
5) General Requirements
There is no limit on the approval level of Director General in respect of Routine Expenditure.
National Directors other than those specifically set out in Table 2 must have their approval levels assigned to them by the Director General.
Assistant National Directors (AND) /Hospital Network Managers(HNM)/ Local Health
Managers (LHO)/ NHO Hospital Managers must have their approval levels formally assigned to them by their National Director.
Below this level (i.e. AND/HNM/LHO & NHO Hospital Manager) each manager to decide
who can approve expenditure and to what value.
In exceptional circumstances, with the consent of an Assistant National Director of Finance or his nominee, individuals can be assigned the approval limit of the next grade up. In such circumstances the budget holder is responsible for ensuring that the necessary adjustments are notified to the relevant personnel to operate.
An expenditure approver can only approve spend within their budget holder’s (or nominees)
responsibility. Approval of Procurement Contracts is not restricted in this way e.g. a 2 year €6m procurement contract for Aids & Appliances (that can be used by PCCC and NHO) is approved by a National Director -and from which individual POs will be raised and approved for each respective budget holder in accordance with their respective approval levels.
Table 2 lists only clerical / administrative and management grades in respect of financial
approval limits by grade. Refer to paragraph A2.15 ‘Expenditure Approval by Non-clerical Admin. & Management grades’ below for details for applicably to other grades
In circumstances where an exact price cannot be obtained prior to issue of order, a ‘one up’
approval is required (refer paragraph 2.4 above for further explanation).
Expenditure Approval can occur at any point up to authorisation of issue of a Purchase order, e.g. an item on contract can be authorised by designated approver at requisition stage or an item could be approved by designated approver at point where order has been completed but not yet awarded to supplier.