Results 5,061-5,080 of 10,899 for speaker:Patrick O'Donovan

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: Why was that?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Comptroller and Auditor General has reported that the contract was awarded to PA Consulting on the basis that payment would be made on receipt of monthly invoices for the support provided in the previous month rather than on the basis of milestones, as was requested under the tender. While the Department engaged in a tendering process, it did not adhere to it and that firm has been paid...

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: That is not the question I asked. Based on what the Comptroller and Auditor General has reported, the tender awarded by the Department stated that specific milestones would have to be reached. Instead, payments were issued monthly. We do not know now if the milestones that were supposed to have been reached were reached or whether it was just payment pro formabased on time. If the...

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: If that is the case, why was it put into the tender in the first place? PA Consulting has been in since 2006 and obviously knew a lot about this by the time the tenders were received in 2014. What was the point of asking that specific milestones would need to be reached if the Department had no intention of paying it on the specific milestones?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: That is not the question I am asking. I asked a very simple question. In the tender, the Department specified that specific milestones would need to be reached before payment would issue, but it did not do that. I am just asking why.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: Was PA Consulting always paid monthly?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: Was it paid on a milestone basis at some stage?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: When was it decided to change from a milestone basis to a monthly basis?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: So we do not know when that happened.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Comptroller and Auditor General has outlined a catalogue of serious issues relating to procurement. At this stage the official from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform might enlighten us as to its views of this.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: No, I-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: Based on the questions I have asked.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: I accept that, but-----

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: I accept that, but my question relates to procurement and my question comes from the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General that I read last night. Regarding consultancy, and assuming I were to accept what Mr. Griffin said at face value, I will outline what is reported about consultant C. Consultant C was employed at a daily rate of €1,230. Further work was contracted for in...

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: When did they terminate?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: Will the official from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform comment on the procurement issues? What is happening here seems outrageous.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: When did the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform become aware of the issues with consultants A, B, C, D, E and F?

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: I presume officials from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform read the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform became aware that seven of the consultancy contracts met criteria for inclusion in the Department's statements to the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in the years 2008, 2013 and 2014, but only two of them were included. Therefore, during the intervening period, nothing happened.

Public Accounts Committee: 2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 29 - Communications, Energy and Natural Resources
Chapter 13 - The Development of Eircode, the National Postcode System (28 Jan 2016)

Patrick O'Donovan: Is it not fair to say that, if the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform followed up, not much notice was taken of it? Consultants A to F only finished last July, but they never went through procurement processes. It is like they won the lotto. Not one of them went through a competitive tendering process, yet there are figures of €146,000, €38,000, €145,000,...