Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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24. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the details of contracts of €25,000 or more that have been awarded by his Department or bodies under his aegis that were found to be non-compliant with procurement guidelines in 2018, 2019, 2020 and to date in 2021; the value and nature of the contract work carried out in each case; the year of each contract in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [11374/21]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Department, through a dedicated Procurement Co-ordination Unit with responsibility at Principal Officer level, ensures that there is an appropriate focus on procurement best practice. There are a range of formal procedures and control mechanisms in place to try to ensure compliance with all relevant national and EU procurement guidelines. The Department, where possible, will try to avail of various centralised procurement frameworks put in place by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) as well as utilising the e-Tenders website and advertising in the EU Journal where applicable.

It is the case however, that a continuing small number of contracts will be awarded without entering into a competitive process each year. Reasons for this include instances where only one company can provide the necessary technical support required, the service is not provided by any other service providers or the contract was for a critical and urgent need such as the purchase of laptops to enable staff to work from home during COVID-19 restrictions.

Under Department of Finance Circular 40/2002 Departments are required to provide a Report annually to the Comptroller & Auditor General and to the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform indicating expenditure on contracts valued above €25,000 which have been awarded without holding a competitive process. Based on the information gathered as part of this process the table below sets out the position in respect of contracts awarded by my Department for the years 2018-20 inclusive. As the annual reporting process in respect of the Department’s 2021 40/02 return has not yet commenced, the requested information in respect of this year is not yet available.