Dáil debates

Tuesday, 3 December 2019

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions

 

2:55 pm

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Government's procurement programme was supposed to be a key element of the public service reform agenda. Among other elements, it was supposed to ensure that the awarding of contracts would be transparent, open to competition and represent best value for money for the State and the taxpayer. Through a series of replies to parliamentary questions that I asked of each Department, however, it is now clear that this process is deeply flawed and contracts are being awarded in the complete absence of competition and without any clear sense that value for money is being achieved or that the interests of the taxpayer are being protected. This has happened not on a handful of occasions or even a few dozen occasions; astonishingly, contracts were awarded outside of the formal tender process on several hundred occasions between 2017 to 2019.

The following is only a sample. Advice to the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment about the national broadband plan at a cost of €14.6 million was not subject to procurement guidelines. That contract must be in jeopardy. The provision of health insurance at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, at a cost of €1.5 million, was not subject to procurement guidelines either. At the higher end of the scale, contracts with a value of more than €13 million were procured on 74 occasions by the Department of Justice and Equality, all without any competitive process. Perhaps one of the worst offenders in terms of how often the guidelines were breached is the Department of Children and Youth Affairs. In 2018, it was found to have issued 60 non-compliant contracts totalling €5.4 million. In 2017, it reported 69 non-compliant contracts.

The Department of Education and Skills awarded 21 contracts, worth €4.64 million, without a competitive process between 2017 and 2018. The Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht awarded nine contracts, worth a total of €1.45 million, outside of the guidelines between 2017 and 2018. An "urgent" requirement for printing at the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection that cost €262,000 was outside procurement guidelines. As Ms. Stephen McDermott at the Journal.ie has shown in his analysis, at least 348 contracts awarded by Departments between 2017 and 2019 failed basic compliance with procurement guidelines. That is shocking.

When ordinary people hear these amounts and about the breaches of guidelines that they represent, they become furious. Is it any wonder that there was such a low turnout last week? Taxpayers see their hard-earned money being thrown around like confetti at a wedding and resent that deeply. Why should they not? Does the Taoiseach not accept that these replies make a mockery of the Government's apparent commitment to ensuring that value for the taxpayer is achieved? Does he accept that they leave the Government's so-called reputation for responsible financial management in absolute ruins? Will he commit to a total review of the Government's procurement guidelines in order to ensure that the interests of hard-working taxpayers are protected from frivolous and uncompetitive awarding of State contracts?

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