Paul Kehoe (Wexford, Fine Gael)
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240. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the contracts that have been granted without having to go to public tender; the companies that were granted these contracts and nature of the work involved; the qualifying criteria that was applied to any company awarded such a contract in 2020, 2021 and to date in 2022; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60083/22]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Foreign Affairs seeks to ensure that there is a strong focus on good practice in procurement at all times 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”). The Department participates fully in on-going initiatives of the OGP focusing especially on achieving procurement savings, including through the use of shared framework agreements for the provision of different categories of supplies and services.

These rules require the Department to award contracts under procedures designed to achieve value for public money in an open, transparent and non-discriminatory competitive process.

The EU Directive recognises that there are situations and circumstances where the negotiated procedure without prior publication is both necessary and legitimate. Regulation 32 of the European Union (Award of Public Authority Contracts) Regulations, as set out in S.I. No. 284 of 2016, provides for the awarding of contracts by way of negotiated procedure without prior publication in certain defined circumstances. For example, this procedure may be used for the purchase of goods and services where no tenders or no suitable tenders are submitted; in cases of extreme urgency not attributable to the Department and brought about by unforeseen events; where only a proprietary product will meet the requirement; where a supplier has sole rights to supply a service or product; the creation or acquisition of a unique work of art; where a public contract is concluded between two or more departments; where a change of supplier would oblige the Department to acquire products having different technical characteristics which would result in incompatibility and technical difficulties and increased costs; or where the contract follows an EU design contest.

The contract information requested is listed in tabular form below. The tables contain all contracts undertaken by way of negotiated procedure without prior publication under Regulation 32 of the European Union (Award of Public Authority Contracts) Regulations for the years 2020 and 2021. Returns for 2022 are not yet available.

Table 1 – 2020 Contracts

Table 2 – 2021 Contracts