Jillian van Turnhout (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I wish to echo my colleagues' statements that representatives of St. Vincent's hospital should be before us today. I thank Mr. Cullen for coming in. In a previous life I worked in procurement, although it was in the office supplies business, so it is an area that I know a lot about. Unfortunately, I am not surprised at what the investigation by "Prime Time" came out with, having seen the ugly aspects of procurement. Therefore, my specific questions are based on my knowledge of that area.

I notice that within Mr. Cullen's processes, he said that the supply chain management team was prohibited from receiving gratuities and favours. Does that apply to all staff of the Beacon Hospital? Does the hospital have a policy of declaring gifts above a certain amount? How does it deal with this? Of course, there are certain exchanges, and people can have a cup of coffee, but we are not talking about that. What is the level at which people must declare? For example, there could be indirect things, such as days at sporting events, that do not necessarily have a set value, but they can be an implied gift.

As regards the Beacon Hospital's external forensic audit, will the auditor be examining the stock levels held by a supplier? Very often, overstocking by a certain supplier can be one of the areas of concern. In addition, is there a coincidence with the timing of orders concerning suppliers? Very often, a salesperson needs to reach a target and therefore the orders are done conveniently to facilitate that, but do not necessarily benefit the company in question.

Mr. Cullen spoke about going out to tender, but I would imagine that the hospital has preferred suppliers, so how does it review the supplier relationships? Is an audit undertaken, every two years or so, to look at how key supplier relationships are maintained, who the contacts are, and the level of ordering from those suppliers? I am talking about the audit within that supplier relationship.