Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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67. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform with regard to the Office of Public Procurement, if the current holder of a contract who is excluded from the new tender because of the quality of a sample has a right to appeal the decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1944/16]

Brendan 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 in favour of a particular candidate on grounds such as existing relationship with the contracting authority that is carrying out a tender process and there are legal remedies which may be used against any public body infringing these rules.

Public procurement procedures require applicants to meet certain standards when applying for public contracts.  The criteria upon which contracting authorities may select suppliers to submit tenders in a public procurement procedure are set out in Regulation 58 of SI 329 of 2006 European Communities (Award of Public Contracts) Regulations and Article 48 and Recitals (39) of 2004/18/EC which is the EU Directive on the co-ordination of procedures for the award of public contracts.  In short a contracting authority should set out, non-discriminatory criteria for use when selecting competitors. Samples may be requested as part of this process. It is up to the potential supplier to prove that they have satisfied those criteria.

In order to assist contracting authorities the Office of Government Procurement has developed standard template documents for procurement processes and the award of contracts. These have been designed to enable contracting authorities carry out procurement processes in a consistent manner. These templates set out the procedures for requesting samples and also the documentation that should accompany them. It is up to the supplier to meet the standards requested. It would be reasonable for a contracting authority to seek the standards that meet their needs and these can of course change over the years.

In relation to the issue of appeal, the Deputy will appreciate that it would be inappropriate for me to comment on a specific tender. Establishing the levels of qualification criteria and award criteria that are relevant and appropriate to a particular contract is the responsibility of the contracting authority concerned.  This is because the contracting authority is in the best position to gauge what is appropriate relative to the needs of that specific contract. In this regard, I would therefore suggest that the supplier seek feedback from the contracting authority.