Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Question 45: To ask the Minister for Finance the date of the last update to the rules for tendering processes issued by his Department; if the rules allow for alterations to the process for scoring tenders while the tender is open; if there is an appeals process for tender decisions; if so, the location at which details of this may be found; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19410/09]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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Rules and guidelines on public tendering are revised and updated periodically in line with developments in the public procurement regime. General guidance on award of contracts issued in 2004 and detailed guidance on particular aspects has been published on the national public procurement website www.etenders.gov.ie.

Guidance Notes issued for (i) public works contracts in April 2007 and (ii) appointment of consultants for construction related services in December 2006 are published on a website dedicated to construction procurement www. constructionprocurement.gov.ie.

The procurement guidelines provide that criteria for the award of contracts should be made known to tenderers in advance of tendering and that new or amended criteria may not be introduced in the course of the award procedure.

Tenderers must be informed of the result of a tendering procedure without delay. A contracting authority must allow an interval (currently 14 calendar days) between the date of informing unsuccessful tenderers of its award decision and the signing of a contract to give dissatisfied tenderers an opportunity to request a review of the decision if they consider that there are grounds for seeking such a review. These provisions are set out in the published regulations implementing EU Remedies Directives, are cited in the guidelines, are widely notified and are made available on the etenders website. The review body in Ireland is the High Court and the standard notice used when advertising contracts on the Official Journal of the EU has a provision for indicating this information to potential tenderers.

These formal review procedures apply in the case of contracts covered by EU Directives (including works contracts above approximately €5 million, supplies and service contracts above approximately €130,000 for central Government sector and €200,000 for most other sectors). The guidelines also promote a policy of voluntary debriefing of unsuccessful tenderers and contracting authorities are encouraged to engage with unsuccessful tenderers on the evaluation of their bids. In many cases, this can avoid the need for recourse to formal review procedures, encourage better bids in future and generate confidence in the integrity of the process.