In the first instance, I wish to advise the Deputy that when a procurement process commences, the final cost of procuring the goods or services involved will not always be fully known.
The Department's internal procurement policy provides that a procurement process for goods or services over €5,000 may not be commenced without: establishing a clear business need; obtaining a realistic estimate of the value of all phases of the service or the goods to be procured; and confirming that the required budget has been approved and is in place.
Once the process has commenced, the final expenditure involved may subsequently vary depending on a number of factors, including:
- the level and volume of services actually delivered;
- the invoking of options in the contract to extend it beyond the initially specified date; and
- the invoking of other contract provisions that broaden or intensify the nature of the work involved, such as service enhancement and service review.
Since its establishment in 2011, my Department has had two publicly funded tenders that have required additional public moneys to be allocated to them internally without the tender process having to be restarted. Details are set out as follows.
Year
|
Tender
|
Additional Allocation (€)
|
Further Information
|
2015
|
Provision and Implementation of a Business Intelligence Solution
|
99,026
|
Additional costs of 11% of the project cost arose in respect of additional implementation costs and supports required
|
2018
|
Infrastructure Monitoring Services (eCohesion System)
|
170,000
|
Additional costs of less than 6% of project cost arose due to infrastructure monitoring change, some additional functionality and additional days of testing
|