David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The report being carried out for the committee by the liaison officer will be useful. We previously gave the matter some discussion and we were waiting on the report to see what we would do with it. There were some major issues with justice and policing, for example, and there was one case where it was too late to make changes and, therefore, the contract was just rolled over. That was fairly substantial. There are a number of issues and, in some cases, it is a matter of small organisations not having the expertise or capacity. Some of the explanations are benign while others are not, and some of the issues cost the State money while others do not. The one constant is a note in the Comptroller and Auditor General's audit opinion but, as far as I can see, there is no sanction for organisations that do not comply with the rules. We need to consider compiling our own report if we do an examination of the issue, or perhaps it should be included in a periodic report.

If a Department commissions a body to carry out a report on weaknesses in procurement, similar to the Mazars report that was done on the national children's hospital, in which procurement failures and weakness were identified, should that body as a matter of course forward the report to the Comptroller and Auditor General? Is that the practice?