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Public Accounts Commitee Probing UCD Over Non-Compliance Cian Carton | Editor
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Guidelines not applied for €8.5 million worth of tenders awarded in 2016. UCD blamed it on delays on a lack of resources. PAC now awaiting correspondence from the Office of Government Procurement.
he Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the Oireachtas is investigating UCD over its failure to competitively tender €8.5 million worth of procurement contracts. PAC began to look into the matter when UCD’s ‘Financial Statement for the 2016 Year’ was put before it on the 14th December 2017. David Cullinane, Acting Chairman of PAC, noted both the €8.5m figure in non-competitive procurement and deferred pension funding, then proposed contacting UCD for an explanation, which is standard practice. PAC wrote to UCD on the 15th December 2017 in relation to UCD’s 2016 Financial Statements. The letter from Margaret Falsey, its Committee Secretariat, noted that 5.5% of UCD’s overall non-payment expenditure for the year was non-compliant with public
procurement guidelines. UCD President Andrew Deeks responded in a letter date the 10th January 2018. He wrote that ‘much of this non-compliant expenditure was due to the extensions of service contracts that were originally awarded competitively, while other noncompliant procurement occurred through the use of competitive quoting rather than a full tender process.’ He stated that UCD believes it ‘achieved excellent value for state and non-state money in all procurement’ undertaken during that period. Deeks further noted that the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) ‘looked at each and every case of non-compliance individually’, and that they ‘outlined the circumstances, nature of contracts and steps being taken to ensure compliance in Section 13 our governance statement submitted with the
accounts.’ The rest of the letter set out that statement. PAC discussed Deeks’ letter on the 18th January where Cullinane observed the correspondence ‘seems to suggest that the Office of Government Procurement, OGP, is facing some difficulties in supporting the college in respect of this.’ He proposed writing to the OGP for a response which will be published. Any UCD contract which will incur expenditure of over €25,000 exclusive of VAT must be advertised nationally on the government’s eTenders website. EU thresholds apply for goods and services over €221,000. Since the 1st August 2014, all public buyers must publish details of awarded tenders over €25,000. The OGP publishes a quarterly list of these awards online. Continued on page 3.