Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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654. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality to provide data on the final cost of public procurement tenders where his Department or agencies under the aegis of his Department acted as the contracting authority in each of the past five years, indicating the number of tenders where the final cost was under, on, or over the contract award value at the time of tendering, in tabular form. [7510/25]

Albert Dolan (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
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655. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the total amount spent in excess of the contract award value for all public procurement tenders within his Department and agencies under the aegis his Department of in each of the past five years. [7528/25]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 654 and 655 together.

Public procurement is governed by EU and national rules and my Department ensures that appropriate procedures are followed for procurement activity.Departments are obliged to ensure that public procurement is discharged in line with the standard accounting and procurement rules and that contract prices represent best value for money.

Public procurement practices are subject to audit and scrutiny under the Comptroller and Auditor General (Amendment) Act 1993. Procurement is subject to internal audit within my Department.

Department of Finance Circular 40/02 requires Government Departments and Offices to submit an annual report to the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General for contracts above €25,000 (exclusive of VAT) awarded without a competitive process by 31 March of the following year and details of contracts awarded by my Department without the use of a competitive process are outlined in the Department’s Appropriation Accounts.

In addition, Circular 09/2024 sets out a new annual reporting requirement relating to the use of centralised procurement arrangements. The report will identify any contracts for goods or services, valued more than €143,000 (exclusive of VAT), where a central procurement arrangement has not been used. My Department is currently preparing its 2024 return for submission in advance of the deadline of 1 July next.

Circular 05/2023 sets out that all public procurement tenders, where they have an estimated value above specified national thresholds, must be advertised on the national electronic tendering platform (eTenders).

Once a tender competition is concluded and a contract awarded, individual Contracting Authorities, including a number of independent bodies under the aegis of my Department, manage the expenditure incurred on their contracts, in their relevant financial systems. These financial systems are separate to the national tendering system (eTenders). As such, information on individual Contracting Authorities expenditure, under the aegis of my Department, at a contract level for all public procurement tenders, is not information that is held by, or readily available to report on centrally.

I have been informed by my Department after consulting with agencies under its aegis that it is not possible to retrieve the granular level of detail of information for all contracts, for the period requested across the Department and agencies under its aegis. I have been informed that to collate this information would involve a disproportionate amount of time and resources.

I can assure the Deputy that the potential benefits that could arise from having greater connections between data from the tendering (pre-award) and the expenditure (post-award) stages of public procurement transactions are recognised, and my Department has begun a process to identify a suitable replacement solution for our current management information system used to record contract details.