Catherine Murphy
Question:
808. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide a schedule of all consultancy firms, accountancy firms, legal firms, project management firms and IT firms his Department has engaged to carry out work its behalf in 2018, 2019 and to date in 2020; if he will summarise the work they were engaged to do and the full costs of the engagements; if disputes over costs ensued; if they were resolved with or without sanctions and or financial penalties and or withholding of funds; and if contracts are subject to legal challenge or mediation. [40204/20]
View answer
Due to the volume of the information requested by the Deputy, it was not possible to provide a comprehensive response in the required timeframe. I will arrange for a reply to be forwarded directly to the Deputy within 10 working days.
The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51
This Department seeks to minimise the use of consultancy firms and other external firms and only engages these firms when particular additional expertise is required for delivery of the services which support the business processes of the Department. Such services are used in areas where the Department does not have the necessary expertise or internal capacity to deliver the services and where it would not make practical, operational or economic sense to build up this capability within the Department.
A number of these engagements are necessary to satisfy auditing and EU regulatory requirements and where independent evaluation of projects is required. All contracts are negotiated with a view to achieving best value for money and keeping expenditure to a minimum.
Please find attached a schedule of all consultancy firms, accountancy firms, project management firms and IT firms engaged by this Department to carry out work on its behalf in 2018, 2019, and to date in 2020. The Department did not engage any legal firms in the period in question.
I can confirm that there have been no disputes over costs, and no contracts were subject to legal challenges or mediation.
