David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There are extraordinary circumstances in which Departments may not comply with rules and the circumstances are set out. We have many reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General which flag up a lack of compliance with the rules. These are flagrant breaches of the rules. All those documents from the Comptroller and Auditor General should be examined. It seems that all a Department has to do is flag up non-compliance. There are no sanctions or penalties and, as a consequence, there is no change. Unless they are forced to change, we will continue to be told there is nothing they can do. The Comptroller and Auditor General also found that the levels of non-compliance in the HSE were so high that the problem was systemic, after carrying out an audit in 2015 where 30% of the samples were found to be non-compliant with procurement rules. It was systemic not just in the HSE, but right across the system. There is a real problem here and we will see more of this unless we have rules in place that involve some level of sanction.

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