Vol. 496 No. 3
241 Mr. Noonan asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the preference of civil contractors involved in public tendering for an open procedure rather than for two stage selective tendering; if his attention has further been drawn to their fears that the constraints imposed by the Public Procurement Directive No. 93/37/EEC will lead to the demise of all but a few major contractors; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22538/98]
It has been brought to my attention that some civil engineering contractors involved in public tendering have expressed a preference for an open tendering procedure rather than a two stage selective tendering process. It is a basic principle of Government procurement that a procedure based on competitive tendering should always be used. Government guidelines on public procurement, most recently revised and published in 1994, have always allowed for the use of two stage selective tendering as an alternative to open tendering. Similarly, the EU public procurement directives have been in existence since 1971 -93/37/EEC is a consolidation of earlier works directives — and also make provisions for such a method of tendering. The guidelines and directives have served both the contracting authorities and the industry well and have ensured openness and fairness in the placing of public contracts.
