Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is important to say that improved procurement procedures have been implemented within the Coast Guard area. In 2019, my Department’s internal audit unit carried out a procurement gap analysis, which identifies a number of areas with significant scope for improvement. The following eight recommendations are contained in the March 2020 audit report: the Irish Coast Guard, IRCG, procurement procedures are to be documented; there is to be better procurement documentation filing and retention; there is to be a live contracts register on finance and procurement SharePoint site; avoid appointment of contractors without competition; improve tender specification costs; improve contract management, contract planning; and carry out evaluations of procurements. These eight recommendations in the internal audit report on Coast Guard procurement were all implemented by the end of November 2020. A procurement manual was finalised in November 2020 which sets out the process from a formal assessment of operational leads to a business case.

Training and procurement workshops are available to all staff involved in the procurement process. The Coast Guard continues to revisit procurement procedures and updates the manual regularly to take into account new guidelines.

See this speech in context