Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 22 October 2020

Public Accounts Committee

2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 – Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Chapter 3 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 4 - Accounting for Capital Assets
Chapter 5 - Accounting for Allied Services

11:30 am

Mr. Robert Watt:

I am happy to answer the question, but I know it is something that we will talk about another time. As the Deputy will be aware, for the vast majority of procurement spending, there is a competitive process and Departments have to indicate each year in their accounts where they have not gone through a competitive process. The Comptroller and Auditor General sets this out, and there is generally a summary prepared and we can see it. Between 98% and 99% of spending is covered through a competitive process. There are exceptions when such a process cannot be gone through, and I know that the particular case in education was because of the speed required to do it.