Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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304. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the process under which a company (details supplied) received contracts to build schools from his Department; the procurement process used; the criteria for awarding the contracts; the officials within his Department that oversaw the process; if his Department was involved in the decision to award the contracts; if not, if the process was conducted by an external agency; and if so, the name of the agency and the process under which the agency was given oversight of the tendering process and awarding of contracts. [45070/18]

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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School building projects which are funded from public monies, including the school projects to which the Deputy refers, are tendered in accordance with EU and national procurement regulations and are required to comply with the Capital Works Management Framework which includes a suite of public works contracts, standard conditions of engagement, model forms, suitability assessment questionnaires and guidance notes published by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP).

The company to which the Deputy refers was appointed on a number of school building projects following competitive tender processes conducted in accordance with those regulations.

Most of the projects were tendered under my Department's Design & Build programme.

Contracts for these schools were awarded under the Design & Build tender process, for which the MEAT assessment method was used. MEAT stands for Most Economically Advantageous Tender. In the case of Design & Build, this means that the criteria for the award of the contract include Technical Merit as well as Price. The award criteria carry weightings and each tender is evaluated against the weighted criteria.

In the case of my Department’s Design and Build programme, the MEAT criteria carries a 60% weighting for Technical Merit and a 40% weighting for Price.

The tender process is conducted by an external Project Management company, which then submits a tender report to my Department for consideration. The tender report is reviewed at Technical Manager level in my Department's Planning and Building Unit and, if acceptable, is approved at Principal Officer level in the Unit.

Joe McHugh (Donegal, Fine Gael)
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The closing date for pre-qualification of contractors was 1 November 2018 at 5pm.

17 potential main contractors have expressed an interest in the project. An assessment of the submissions is to commence this week, arising from which further information may be requested and a short list will be prepared.

Following this process, the pre-qualified contractors will be invited to submit tenders for the major building project.