It is quite a low threshold for a big organisation so percentage-wise it might not be huge. Over a number of years more discipline has come into the system and there is less likelihood that people will take the easy route and not go for a competitive process.

The 40/2002 circular has been in place since 2002, obviously. It requires a Department to report to me and also to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform if it has had non-competitive procurement. That is designed to flag to us that it decided not to go the competitive route so that we can know and we can look at the particular instances.

In the statement on internal financial control, which is at the front of each Department's appropriation account, it is supposed to set out the circumstances that gave rise to non-compliant procurement and to explain so that it is transparent why it did not have competitive procurement, why it was sometimes non-compliant and the steps it is taking to remedy it.