‘Flawed’ public procurement costs State millions

The main representative body for the building sector has slammed the Government’s current public procurement system — saying the “extremely flawed” process is costing the State “tens of millions of euro” every year.

At its Public Procurement in Ireland conference yesterday, the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) said the current system is “broken” and is delaying the completion of new schools, hospitals and many other public projects.

The CIF said that lack of clarity, incomplete information, lack of legal recourse and low quality of tender documents is hampering progress, while the system favours the lowest tender price, as opposed to the ability of a company to undertake and complete a project.