Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It appears to be quite pedestrian given the time lags. Let me revert to a previous report of the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2010 which dealt with Kildare Vocational Education Committee. A number of failures were found relating to procurement, ICT, five purchases where there was no evidence of the three quotations being sought. This goes back quite a long time. Of the overall expenditure of €1.9 million, payments of more than €400,000 were made to one company that was formed by a person who had worked part-time in the VEC. The then chief executive officer of the VEC at the time claimed that the details of tenders could not be located but he was satisfied that the procurements requirements had been followed and the documents were probably misfiled. As Deputy MacSharry said, the Department circular states that in the VEC sector that competitive tendering is the normal process. The Comptroller and Auditor General's report at the time states that the Department will continue to insist on adherence to proper procurement practices in VECs and reminds VECs of their obligations in that regard. What happened subsequent to that? We are all aware that an inquiry is taking place and we know the terms of reference. What did the Department do that would ensure that what had been found in that report would be complied with and that it would not happen again?.