The Department, through a dedicated Procurement Co-ordination Unit with responsibility at Principal Officer level, ensures that there is an appropriate focus on procurement best practice. There are a range of formal procedures and control mechanisms in place to try to ensure compliance with all relevant national and EU procurement guidelines. The Department, where possible, will try to avail of various centralised procurement frameworks put in place by the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) as well as utilising the e-Tenders website and advertising in the EU Journal where applicable.
It is the case however, that a continuing small number of contracts will be awarded without entering into a competitive process each year. Reasons for this include instances where only one company can provide the necessary technical support required, the service is not provided by any other service providers or the contract was for a critical and urgent need such as the purchase of laptops to enable staff to work from home during COVID-19 restrictions.
Under Department of Finance Circular 40/2002 Departments are required to provide a Report annually to the Comptroller & Auditor General and to the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform indicating expenditure on contracts valued above €25,000 which have been awarded without holding a competitive process. Based on the information gathered as part of this process the table below sets out the position in respect of contracts awarded by my Department for the years 2018-20 inclusive. As the annual reporting process in respect of the Department’s 2021 40/02 return has not yet commenced, the requested information in respect of this year is not yet available.
|
Year
|
Company Awarded Contract
|
Details
|
Value of Contract€(incl. VAT)
|
|
2018
|
Oracle EMEA
|
Oracle ACS Support for E-Business Suite for 2019. Required in anticipation of Financial Management Shared Service. Only Oracle can provide this support.
|
€139,904
|
|
2018
|
Oracle EMEA
|
Consolidated annual license support contract. Required to be paid direct to Oracle. Original license purchases were by way of competitive tender.
|
€274,000
|
|
2018
|
Microsoft Ireland
|
Microsoft Unified Support December 2019 to December 2020. This service is not provided by any other service providers
|
€70,583
|
|
2018
|
Word Perfect
|
Translation services for the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) – contract rolling over while a corresponding Office of Government Procurement framework was experiencing legal challenges
|
€83,102
|
|
2018
|
EIR
|
Provision of Reception Services to WRC and Labour Court
|
€49,598
|
|
2018
|
SWORD GROUP
|
Maintenance contract for the PTOLEMY IP administration system used by the Intellectual Property Office of Ireland. This is a proprietary software developed by Sword and therefore cannot be maintained or developed by a third party.
|
€104,665
|
|
2019
|
Oracle EMEA
|
Oracle ACS Support for E-Business Suite for 2020.Required in anticipation of Financial Management Shared Service. Only Oracle can provide this support.
|
€139,853
|
|
2019
|
Oracle EMEA
|
Consolidated annual licence support contract. Required to be paid direct to Oracle. Original licence purchases were by way of competitive tender.
|
€282,220
|
|
2019
|
Microsoft Ireland
|
Microsoft Unified Support December 2019 to December 2020. This service is not provided by any other service providers.
|
€82,585
|
|
2019
|
SWORD GROUP
|
Maintenance contract for the PTOLEMY IP administration system used by the Intellectual Property Office of Ireland. This is a proprietary software developed by Sword and therefore cannot be maintained or developed by a third party.
|
€111,129
|
|
2020
|
Evros Technology Group
|
Critical and urgent purchase of laptops to enable staff to work from home during COVID-19 restrictions. Circular 40/02 procedures apply and were complied with.
|
€45,129
|
|
2020
|
Evros Technology Group
|
Critical and urgent purchase of laptops to enable staff to work from home during COVID-19 restrictions. Circular 40/02 procedures apply and were complied with.
|
€86,439
|
|
2020
|
Oracle EMEA
|
Oracle ACS Support for E-Business Suite and Database 11 for 2021. Required in anticipation of Financial Management Shared Service. Only Oracle can provide this support.
|
€260,150
|
|
2020
|
Oracle EMA
|
Consolidated annual licence support contract. Required to be paid direct to Oracle. Original licence purchases were by way of competitive tender
|
€268,311
|
|
2020
|
Microsoft Ireland
|
Microsoft Unified Support December 2019 to December 2020. This service is not provided by any other service providers
|
€82,102
|
|
2020
|
Arkphire (formerly Zinopy)
|
Citrix Remote access contract (1st June 2017-31st May 2020) extended for one additional year due to importance of remote access during COVID-19 restrictions. Circular 40/02 procedures apply and were complied with.
|
€50,000
|
|
2020
|
McCann Fitzgerald
|
Legal services in respect of the Covid-19 Credit Guarantee Scheme. The awarding of the contract without undertaking a competitive process was in compliance with the OGP information note on "COVID-19 (Coronavirus) and Public Procurement"
|
€133,270
|
|
2020
|
SWORD GROUP
|
Maintenance contract for the PTOLEMY IP administration system used by the Intellectual Property Office of Ireland. This is a proprietary software developed by Sword and therefore cannot be maintained or developed by a third party.
|
€139,181
|
