Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 November 2015
5. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will set out the guidelines in place to ensure best practice in public procurement; the oversights that exist in the process of the awarding of Government contracts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40797/15]
View answerMy question relates to guidelines in place to ensure best practice in public procurement and oversight in that regard. I raise the question in light of specific concerns arising from a meeting that occurred between bidders for the supply of personal alarms to older people and the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, and Deputy Brendan Ryan in the course of the procurement process.
I do not have knowledge of any particular issue such as the one the Deputy indicated. Public procurement is governed by well-established EU and national rules and guidelines. The aim of the rules is to promote an open, competitive and non-discriminatory public procurement regime which delivers best value for money. EU directives on public procurement require that public works, supplies and service contracts above certain thresholds must be advertised on the Official Journal of the EU and awarded on the basis of objective and non-restrictive criteria. For works contracts, the threshold is €5.186 million; for supplies and service contracts awarded by Government Departments, the threshold is €134,000; and for the remainder of public bodies, the threshold is €207,000. The threshold for supplies and service contracts of entities operating in utility sectors such as water, energy, transport and postal services is €414,000. For contracts below these thresholds, the general requirement is that they be advertised on the national public procurement website, www.etenders.gov.ie or, depending on value, awarded on the basis of a competitive process of direct invitation to an adequate number of suitable suppliers.
In line with this, the following national rules apply to below EU threshold procurements. Supplies or services costing less than €5,000 in value may be purchased on the basis of verbal quotes from one or more competing suppliers. Contracts for supplies or services between €5,000 and €25,000 in value should be awarded on the basis of responses to specifications sent by fax or e-mail to at least three suppliers or service providers. Goods and general services with an expected value of €25,000 or more should be advertised on the eTenders website while for ICT procurements, the expected value is €10,000 or more. It is the responsibility of each contracting authority to ensure they comply with EU and national rules in relation to public procurement.
I thank the Minister. On 10 December 2014, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly, and Deputy Brendan Ryan met to discuss a senior alerts scheme. The meeting took place nine days after the deadline for the submission of tenders for grant-funded telecare services for the elderly. Two other people attended the meeting, Mr. Gerry Bunting, managing director of TASK Limited, and his colleague, Ms Bernadette Dunne. They were subsequently successful-----
Sorry, Deputy. You must be very careful. You cannot imply these things without evidence being produced. This is Question Time, not an opportunity to make statements.
The two individuals attended the meeting with the Minister, Deputy Alan Kelly, and Deputy Brendan Ryan.
The Deputy is not listening to me. She should learn the rules of the House on Question Time. She cannot make accusations here about meetings that may or may not have happened.
This turn of events will more than likely give rise to litigation.
Maybe so but stick to your question in the meantime.
Mr. Bunting is a constituent of Deputy Brendan Ryan.
Would you please refrain from making allegations against people who are not present to defend themselves?
The Minister is present and I ask him to familiarise himself with the case.
He is dealing with Question No. 5.
Does ministerial interaction with persons with an interest in a live procurement and a meeting such as the one I described comply with standards of openness, transparency and a non-discriminatory regime?
I have no knowledge of the issue the Deputy raises. I will not give general answers that could be applied to a particular case about which I have no knowledge whatsoever.
I do, and when the initial approach was made for the meeting, the Minister’s Department refused the meeting.
I ask the Deputy to stick to the question. We are not dealing with a meeting about which nobody seems to know anything. The Deputy’s question was to ask the Minister to set out the guidelines in place to ensure best practice in public procurement.
Plenty of people know about the meetings.
I do not know about them, and it is none of my business. I am here to ensure there is fair play in respect of people’s good names.
Other bidders who were unsuccessful know about the meetings.
I am not going to allow the Deputy, or anybody else, to take people’s good names and imply wrongdoing without proper notice being given.
The Deputy has asked a parliamentary question and I ask her to stick to it.
The issue arises in circumstances where the Department initially refuses a meeting cognisant of the need to be open, transparent and non-discriminatory. Is it appropriate for a Minister to meet bidders who may be, and were in this case, the successful bidders in the process subsequently?
Again, I ask the Deputy to please adhere to the practice of this House. The relevant Minister is not present and the Deputy cannot expect the Minister answering questions to be able to give an answer. This is Question Time.
It is.
The Deputy will have to find some other way of raising these issues but she cannot do so in Question Time.
There is no better way to test the efficacy of the EU directives and their application in this State-----
Would the Minister like to reply?
-----than to test specific cases on which there has been public commentary-----
If there is wrongdoing, as the Deputy says, she should bring it to the attention of the authorities.
-----to test against those very benchmarks so we, as parliamentarians, may establish whether they are being applied or not. That is my purpose here.
Public procurement practices are subject to audit and scrutiny under the Comptroller and Auditor General (Amendment) Act 1993 and the Local Government Reform Act 2014. Accounting Officers, not Ministers, are publicly accountable for expenditure incurred. Individual contracting authorities are responsible for establishing arrangements for ensuring the proper conduct of their affairs, including the performance of standards of good governance and accountability with regard to procurement.
