Written answers

Wednesday, 6 May 2015

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Public Procurement Contracts

Photo of Anthony LawlorAnthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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183. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he is aware that, in spite of his Department's Circular 10/14: Initiatives to assist small and medium enterprises in public procurement, many local authorities are still not applying the principles of the circular in their procurement, and as a result, Irish small and medium-sized enterprises are still largely excluded from Government tenders, with a very high percentage of our procurement going outside the country; the steps he and the Office of Government Procurement are taking to ensure that the above circular is implemented, in order that Irish small and medium enterprises, which find it impossible to compete with foreign multinationals, are not precluded from, or disadvantaged by, tendering for Government contracts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17803/15]

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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Public Procurement is governed by EU and National rules. The aim of these rules is to promote an open, competitive and non-discriminatory public procurement regime which delivers best value for money.  It would be a breach of the EU rules for a public body to favour or discriminate against particular candidates on grounds such as nationality, geographic location or organisational size, and there are legal remedies which may be used against any public body infringing these rules.

I would point out that the reform of public procurement in Ireland is being carried out in a manner that recognises the clear importance of small and medium-sized enterprises in this country's economic recovery.  The recently published report by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) "Public Service Spend and Tendering Analysis for 2013" showed that 93% of public service procurement expenditure was with businesses in the Republic of Ireland. This was based on an analysis of €2.742 billion expenditure across 64 large public service bodies involving over 35,000 suppliers.

The OGP is working with industry representative bodies to promote the engagement of Irish business in public procurement (including ISME, IBEC, SFA, Chambers Ireland, and CIF) as well as the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, InterTrade Ireland, and Enterprise Ireland.  Last year, for example, the OGP supported two 'Meet the Buyer' events - one in Belfast and the other in Dublin attended by over 1,100 businesses.  In addition, the OGP proactively launched a campaign to get more businesses to register with e-tenders (the national tendering portal) which resulted in 12,300 new supplier registrations in 2014.

It is also important to realise that open tendering is a two way street and provides Irish companies with opportunities to compete in an EU market estimated to be valued in excess of €2.4 trillion per annum.  The open market regime offers opportunities for Irish companies to win business abroad and many Irish businesses are successful in this regard.  

The OGP will continue to work with industry to ensure that winning government business is done in a fair, transparent and accessible way and to ensure that Government procurement policies are business friendly.

Photo of Anthony LawlorAnthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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184. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide, in tabular form, a breakdown of the total number of Government tenders for the years 2011 to 2014 and 2015 to date; and the number of contracts in each year that were awarded to Irish small and medium-sized enterprises. [17804/15]

Photo of Anthony LawlorAnthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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185. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform with regard to public procurement, the requirements regarding the publication of awards; the reason only 18% of awards were published in 2014; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17805/15]

Photo of Brendan HowlinBrendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 184 and 185 together.

It is the responsibility of individual contracting authorities to publish award notices following the signing of a contract. This process is facilitated through the national eProcurement portal .  This portal is the Irish Government's public platform for advertising public sector procurement tenders. All tender notices entered into eTenders are advertised on this national system but notices greater than a certain threshold value must also be advertised in the Official Journal of the EU (OJEU).  Under EU Directives on public procurement, public works, utilities, supplies and service contracts above certain thresholds must be advertised (tender notice) and details of the contracts awarded also published (contract award notices) in the OJEU.  

The OJEU is an electronic publication where all public procurement tenders above the EU Thresholds, from across all member states must be published. Non-OJEU refers to the tender notices that are below the OJEU public procurement thresholds. The eTenders system facilitates the entry and publication of tender notices and contract award details for both national and EU procurement opportunities.  eTenders is set up and approved to automatically send notices of tender notices above threshold estimated values to be published in the OJEU.  This allows Contracting Authorities to meet national and EU guidelines for publishing notices and awards in a single system. The current EU thresholds are:

Works
Contract Notice €5,186,000 Threshold applies to Government Departments and Offices, Local and Regional Authorities and public bodies
Supplies and Services
Contract Notice €134,000 Threshold applies to Government Departments and Offices
Contract Notice €207,000Threshold applies to Local and Regional Authorities and public bodies outside the Utilities sector
Utilities
Works Contracts/Prior Indicative Notice €5,186,000For entities in Utilities sector covered by GPA
Supplies and Services €414,000For entities in Utilities sector covered by GPA

While the EU Directives require publication of tender and contract award notices for above threshold activity, below threshold notices are governed only by national rules. Following the introduction of Circular 10/14: 'Initiatives to assist SMEs in Public Procurement', the entry of contract award details for all contracts above €25k became mandatory since August 2014, however prior to this date it was not mandatory.  

The OGP recently published a report titled "Public Service Spend and Tendering Analysis for 2013". It reported that eTenders contained details of 627 contracts awarded by Public Sector Bodies in 2013 for tender notices published in 2013. This is approximately 18% of the 3,518 tender notices published during 2013. However, a contract may take up to 9 months or more to complete from the date of tender notice advertisement to signing of a contract. Therefore, award data might not be available until the following year.  The next report on this to be published by the OGP will report on 2014 spend and tendering activity. This information is not yet available.  

The eTenders system incorporates a supplier register that holds company information as entered by each supplier. Historically, many suppliers have registered their company multiple times and/or with incomplete business profiles. Significant progress was made during 2014 to clean up supplier data and this work is still on-going.

The information requested by the Deputy relating to tender notices for the years 2011 to date, as entered by contracting authorities on eTenders, is being collated and will be issued directly to the Deputy.

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