Loopholes in public contracts need to be closed, says Stanley

Vivienne Clarke

The chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Brian Stanley, has called for “loopholes to be closed” to reduce risk to taxpayers’ money when public contracts are being signed.

Mr Stanley was responding to a question about the appointment of controversial building firm BAM Ireland as the main contractor on the new €100 million Narrow Water Bridge in County Louth.

“It made me pause for a moment” he told Newstalk Breakfast.

“But I do think that all public bodies, local authorities, local councils and government departments need to be able to exercise a certain amount of discretion here with contracts. They do need to be done in a professional way, they need to be legally approved. The loopholes need to be closed.

“We need to reduce the risk to the taxpayer. We need to get jobs coming in on time, projects completed. Because these hospitals and bridges and road services are all badly needed.”

Mr Stanley said it was important that the record of any company being considered for a public contract must be taken into consideration. Any details in relation to persistent problems, delays, escalating costs, legal contest regarding claims “all need to be taken into consideration.”

While some projects had been carried out on time and within budget, there were many other examples of public projects that were beset by persistent problems, he added.

“I think what we need to do, in fairness, is we need a major overhaul of the actual terms of the contract. That's what needs to happen here, where public bodies and government are signing off on contracts, that we need a major overhaul.

“We've seen the situation with various projects where costs continue to skyrocket, a lot of contracts don't. And that's welcome. We see where contractors are supposed to have a certain number of people on various sites. And public bodies and the taxpayer need to know that the public purse can be protected against that.

“All governments now and in the future need to be sure about where the weaknesses are in the terms of the contracts? And I think what government need to do is say we have we have an Office of Government Procurement. That office, I think, needs to engage in a major overhaul of how we do it.

"There are some legal constraints and, you know, legal minds need to be put to work on that to see how they can be tightened up, how loopholes can be closed, and how we can reduce the risk on the taxpayer. We can't have a situation where we have open contracts and open ended prices.”