Friday, March 27, 2009

Department of Justice Caught Breaking the Rules?

An unwelcome light has been shone on the Department of Justice after they've admitted that various contracts worth €100m were awarded without fully going out to tender - as civil service procurement rules dictate - since 2003.


The contracts, including a €21m deal to construct a 64-cell block at Castlerea Prison in Roscommon, were doled out by the Department and the Irish Prison Service. It took an audience with the Dáil's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) before Seán Aylward and Brian Purcell spilled the beans on the deals - I'll stick up what's sure to be an entertaining transcript of the meeting when it becomes available.


John Buckley at the the Comptroller and Auditor General has launched into full investigation mode, while various Department of Finance officials are quoted tut-tutting in today's Irish Times. All that diligence might have been a bit more useful when these shenanigans were going on over the last six years.

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