Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 21 September 2017

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

9:00 am

Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

Yes, they are significant. A significant issue was disclosed in the statement on internal control, namely, a review of procurement of outsourced work in its final real year of operation in 2015. It was found that the mandate for the outsourced work was not clear and that the board of An Chéim was not kept fully informed in regard to it. The work was carried out without the involvement of HEAnet, which was taking over the functions, so, effectively, the systems were developed without consultation with the people who were going to be operating them. In addition, payments of €941,000 were made to the service provider during the year without an appropriate competitive tender process.