Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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409. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the details of contracts of €25,000 or more than have been awarded by his Department or bodies under the aegis of his Department that were found to be non-compliant with procurement guidelines from 1 January 2019 to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37798/20]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department operates in a number of locations in Ireland and approximately 90 locations worldwide. It comprises two Votes; Vote 27 International Cooperation and Vote 28 Foreign Affairs. The policy of the Department is to operate competitive tendering as standard procedure in order to achieve best value for money.

The Department is focused on good practice in procurement and that procedures are in place to ensure compliance with all relevant procurement guidelines. Procurement takes place in compliance with Directive 2014/24/EU and supported by Procurement Guidelines published by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP).

On occasion, a small number of Department contracts do not undergo a competitive process due to exceptional market conditions or other circumstances. Such contracts are recorded in accordance with DPER Circular 40/02. The majority of the contracts relate to provision of proprietary ICT services or to situations where there was a single suitable supplier available. These contracts are subject to regular review by my Department’s procurement team. Other contracts were extended beyond the original expiry date without a competitive process, or in some cases, contracts had previously been awarded but exceeded the relevant thresholds that now require a competitive process. The Department has already tendered a number of these contracts in 2020 and will tender the remainder of contacts shortly.

Details of contracts for 2020 are not available at this time. However, 2020 procurements are being monitored and managed by the Department on an ongoing basis.

Details of non-compliant contracts for 2019 are included in the following table;