Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As normal, we will write to Dundalk Institute of Technology regarding the late review of the internal control which, as the Comptroller and Auditor General outlined, should have happened within a three-month period. I will ask the clerk to write to Dundalk Institute of Technology regarding this.

Are the accounting statements agreed? Agreed. They will be published as part of the minutes. We have a standing agreement to write to the bodies that are late laying their accounts before the Houses of the Oireachtas, in this case Dundalk Institute of Technology, as well as with regard to significant expenditure not compliant with procurement guidelines. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Moving to correspondence, as agreed, correspondence that was not flagged for discussion for this meeting will continue to be dealt with in accordance with the proposed actions that have been circulated, and decisions taken by the committee on correspondence are recorded in the minutes of the committee's meetings and published on the committee's web page.

The first four items of correspondence have been held over from previous private meetings for consideration in today's public meeting. The first category of correspondence under which members have flagged items for discussion is correspondence from Accounting Officers and-or Ministers and follow-up to meetings of the Committee of Public Accounts.

No. 606B is a comprehensive response from Mr. Adam O'Hare, director of finance and procurement, Beaumont Hospital, dated 21 May 2021. It provides information requested by the committee on non-compliant procurement. It is an example of the responses we receive to our requests for explanations for instances of significant expenditure not in compliance with procurement guidelines. Interestingly, Mr. O’Hare states:

... compliance with the public procurement regulations poses a greater challenge to the health sector than to most other public sector organisations. Historically, the over-arching remit to provide rapid clinical care, coupled with the absence of an effective centralised purchasing model managed by the HSE, have dictated that local purchases were occasionally made, of necessity, without recourse to formal tendering procedures.

At our meeting of 1 June we decided to note and publish this. Deputy Carthy flagged the matter for discussion.