Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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13. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Digitisation if he will consider instructing Departments and bodies under his remit to include an additional column in their published purchase order reports to indicate the specific contract under which each payment is made; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40546/26]

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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Will the Minister consider instructing Departments and bodies under his remit to include an additional column in their published purchase order reports to indicate the specific contract under which each payment is made? From a purchase order report, I can see who was paid, how much they were paid and when they were paid but I cannot see what they were paid for. The only way we can do that is by linking it back to the original contract.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Dolan. I am committed to ensuring transparency and accountability in public expenditure, including in relation to the publication of purchase orders over €20,000. In this context, my Department has an effective process in place to produce the quarterly purchase order report in a timely manner.

The publication of purchase order data over €20,000 stems from a commitment in the programme for Government and public service reform plan in 2011. Since then, my Department, in common with many other public bodies, has developed standardised reporting processes to enable timely and efficient publication of this information. In line with evolving best practice, my Department has enhanced the accessibility of these reports, including by making them machine readable, aligning with open data guidance and principles. Furthermore, my Department has recently written to Secretaries General of all Departments reiterating the statutory obligations of public bodies under the open data directive and the Freedom of Information Act 2014. In the context of continuing to enhance transparency, I am open to examining how additional information could be provided in a meaningful way.

In respect of the Deputy’s proposal to include an additional column identifying the contract under which each payment is made, I acknowledge the potential benefits to transparency and expenditure reporting. However, I have been informed by officials the feasibility of implementing such a requirement across Departments and agencies is contingent on the configuration and capabilities of existing financial management systems. Any proposed change of this nature would require further detailed consideration, including clarification of the specific information requirements, assessment of system capabilities and evaluation of associated costs and administrative impacts.

My Department will continue to engage with stakeholders on opportunities to improve reporting in a manner that is practical, proportionate and sustainable and in line with the wider direction the Deputy has outlined.

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister for his work in writing to all the State bodies to remind them of their obligation under the EU open data directive that they have to publish their purchase orders in machine-readable format. To give the Minister an example, Transport Infrastructure Ireland, TII, the children's hospital and the Arts Council were not publishing but once he wrote to them, this ensured that they did start publishing. We had written to them as well. The Minister will be aware of my work with my team in collating all the information to get over €100 billion in procurement spend tracked over the past decade. It goes back to the fundamental point that the State can tell us that a payment was made but it is not easy to see which contract authorised it. Some entities and some suppliers have multiple contracts with multiple State entities and it is actually really difficult to see exactly what they were doing or what they provided. For Ministers and for everyone to be able to assess what value was actually provided, we need to know which contract underpinned that spend. That is where I am going with this and that is where that additional column needs to come in.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. I commend all his work and policy proposals in this area. I think we can all agree that enhancing transparency is absolutely a desirable objective. I am open to examining how additional information can be provided in a meaningful way to achieve that. In terms of wider moves towards standardisation, part of what my officials are now examining is what the various systems and operational capacities are in particular Departments and agencies to achieve that. More broadly and in line with the focus of transparency, I am conscious of the critical role public procurement plays, particularly in maintaining and building public trust in Government. Billions of euro are spent on public contracts every year and, as the Deputy said, the public need to be confident that their money is being spent in a judicious and fair manner. Likewise, suppliers need to trust the integrity of the procurement system if we are to drive participation and increased competition. In that line, I am concluding a new national procurement strategy, which I hope to bring to Government before the summer recess. There are different elements, with transparency-related procurement processes and data and organisation planning being consolidated into a broader pillar, again, to strengthen trust and transparency.

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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The Office of Government Procurement stopped centrally collecting procurement spend data in 2019 citing general data protection regulation, GDPR, concerns and six years later, nothing has replaced it. The Department is estimating its procurement spend using estimated tender values on eTenders, not actual expenditure data. I believe this is a structural governance problem and a very practical step is adding one additional column to published purchase order reports identifying the relevant contract reference or contract award notice. It sounds small but it would be transformative. It would begin creating that golden thread from tender to contract award to payment because public money should be traceable from beginning to end. I will say this plainly: we cannot govern a system that we cannot see. I greatly appreciate anything the Minister can do in this regard. This is an opportunity to provide a greater level of transparency and I know the Minister is committed to that as well.

Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Absolutely. As I said, it is something I have asked my own officials to strengthen in the context of particular procurement processes to see what the outputs and outturns are and the transparency connected right through that. Part of delivering across that objective will be set out in a new national procurement strategy on how we can strengthen transparency and trust but also then improve competition and the integrity of competition within the market, ultimately, to provide better value for money. These are critical priorities of mine. I am happy to continue to work with the Deputy in this area.