David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am, with respect. The references I cited do not include cases where a disclosed level of non-compliant procurement is below €500,000. This means that the potential non-compliance is even greater. It should also be noted that the level of non-compliant procurement may be higher due to under reporting. For example, the HSE does not have adequate systems to capture instances of non-complaint procurement and accepts that it is unreported at a level. The Comptroller and Auditor General has reported on auditing testing in the HSE. The office found that audit testing of the HSE procurement in 2015 involved testing the procurement in five locations, to a total value of €26.9 million. Some 30% of the sample was found not to be in compliance with procurement rules. It was 47% in 2013. If there is a situation where the HSE has been found to be in breach of non-procurement rules for 30% of what was captured in an audit in one year and 47% in another year, how then are SMEs or other businesses which this Bill wants to include going to get a fair crack of the whip? That is the point. There is a much bigger problem here which must be addressed. My party will table amendments to this Bill to deal with a lot of the failures in non-compliance, which we are entitled to do, and in that context it is reasonable for me to outline to the Minister of State the absolute failure of non-compliance, especially in the HSE and in many other organisations also. I am putting this House on notice that we will be tabling amendments to deal with the levels of non-compliance and to strengthen public procurement in the context of this Bill.

The Comptroller and Auditor General reported on what he saw as the reasons there was such high levels of non-compliance and I think the Minister of State should examine this. He said that public bodies did not have a procurement specialist to advise on the procurement process. He found the need to acquire goods or services to deal with an urgent matter; an extension roll-over of existing contracts, including in some cases for many years; existence of historical and local supplier arrangements where a previous competitive process could not be identified; expert or recent satisfactory experience with supplier; the purchase of branded goods and services, especially in ICT and medical equipment; only one suitable supplier being identified; security considerations in some Departments; and multiple repeated low value purchases with an aggregation or due to a greater workload than originally anticipated. We can see that there are major issues with non-compliance.

We have brought forward similar Bills in the past. I support the logic of this Bill, and we all support the idea of social clauses and social contracts and a community dividend. I hope, when this Bill goes to Committee Stage we can iron out all the other problems. In the interests of proper transparency and accountability, I appeal to the Minister of State to examine all the reports from the Comptroller and Auditor General which have highlighted very significant failures in compliance which is potentially is costing this State hundreds of millions of euro every year. As the Government put together budgets every year, I am sure that every penny that can be saved which can be put into hospitals and schools and front-line services would be welcome rather than being wasted in terms of non-compliance with existing guidelines.

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