An Garda Síochána breached the rules for granting Government contracts when it obtained its system for recording interviews with suspects. However, these breaches were not so serious as to affect the eventual award of the contract, according to the Comptroller and Auditor General.
Mr John Purcell was asked to carry out a special examination of the procurement of the interview-recording system by the Public Accounts Committee and the Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform. This followed questions in the Dáil and from a disappointed tenderer about the fairness and objectivity of the process.
The scheme has been in the pipeline for almost a decade and a pilot scheme was introduced in 1993. The pilot testing, involving 14 audio-visual systems, continued until 1999, when tenders were issued for a national system. Following the tender process, a contract for 252 audio-visual recording systems, to be installed in 220 Garda stations, was concluded in April 2001 at a cost of €3.7 million. The successful tenderer was the main supplier at the pilot stage of the project.
The conclusion of the legal expert engaged by the Comptroller and Auditor General was that there had been breaches of the rules. These concerned the failure to ensure the publication of a contract award notice within the times specified and the failure to give adequate reasons for the award decision within the specified time. The non-publication of a notice specifically relating to the type of equipment may also have constituted a breach, according to the solicitor.
Mr Purcell also identified other shortcomings in the procurement process. In particular, he said the relative merits of alternative technology solutions may not have been evaluated adequately. Certain pilot-stage acquisitions were not the subject of competitive tendering, he said.
Mr Purcell said in his report there were a number of lessons to be learned. In particular, it was important that the definition of requirements was framed in a manner that maximised the number of solutions offered by tenderers, and to have an independent expert on the evaluation team.
The national guidance on procurement is out of date, he said and needed to be updated to ensure that pilot testing identified a wide range of solutions, to ensure the drawing up of appropriate specifications and documentation, to have robust and transparent procedures, and to guarantee compliance with public procurement law.