For the Deputy’s information, the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) is an office within the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform that provides centralised public sector procurement arrangements and support for sourcing common goods and services. Accordingly, the Department’s suppliers and service contractors are required to confirm that they have taken account of their statutory and legal obligations in relation to the employment protection and working conditions of their employees, as part of the contracted services provided.
The terms and conditions in the standardised Request for Tender, which forms part of the contract, specifically requires that ‘The Contractor shall be responsible for compliance with all statutory requirements of an employer and without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing shall be solely responsible in law for the employment, remuneration, taxes, and immigration and work permits of all personnel retained for the purposes of complying with their contract.
There has been no security or cleaning contract cancelled since October 2015 for breach of the ERO system by the Department. The Department intends to review all current security and cleaning contracts to ensure that they are compliant with the stipulated remuneration as set out in regulation.
With regard to bodies under the aegis of my Department the information sought is a matter for each agency and is not collated centrally.
