The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has summoned the Health Service Executive to provide detailed explanations about the cost and selection process of outside consultants hired to perform investigations.
PAC Chairman John McGuinness expressed concern that former HSE staff are occasionally selected to do this work.
Some documents obtained revealed that a few inquiries were commissioned without any official or competitive tendering process usually required by public service spending regulations.
Rules set out by the HSE itself specify that this process must take place whenever former staff are being called upon to do such contract work.
These documents also show that some people received a remuneration of almost €1,000 a day.
The PAC is expected to home in on one particular case involving a vulnerable person in care. This case led to two outside investigations, one of them with a price tag of over €98,000.
Another inquiry, which ended up costing €58,000, was a followup to establish whether there were any other similar cases. This second inquiry was actually done by a consultancy company staffed by some former HSE workers.
HSE representatives have confirmed they will appear before the PAC next month.