Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 29 November 2023
46. Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh asked the Minister for Finance the role the National Development Finance Agency has in protecting public procurement in large capital projects from bid-rigging and any ongoing review of large capital projects; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52366/23]
View answerThe NTMA have advised me that the procurement of large capital projects by the National Development Finance Agency (NDFA) on behalf of State authorities is conducted in accordance with EU and Irish procurement and competition law. In this regard NDFA, like other procuring authorities, has powers to exclude an entity from a competition in the case of adverse legal findings under competition law, including bid rigging. Specifically, under Regulation 57 of the EU (Award of Public Authority Contracts) Regulations (SI 284/2016) (which transposes into Irish law Directive 2014/24/EU), the NDFA can exclude bidders from procurement procedures for matters such as corruption (Regulation 57(1)(b)), grave professional misconduct (which could include violation of competition law rules) (Regulation 57(8)(c)) and agreements with other economic operators aimed at distorting competition (Regulation 57(8)(d).
In addition, the NDFA procurement documentation for large capital projects provides express rights to reject or disqualify a tender where a tenderer engages in collusion with other bidders, which would include any form of co-operation that contravenes competition law rules.
Moreover, the NTMA further advised me that the Competition (Amendment) Act 2022 recently introduced a specific criminal offence of bid-rigging, with effect from September 2023 and the procurement of all large capital projects is subject to this provision of the Act.
