Government procurement process ‘a shambles’ due to ‘untrained staff’

The government procurement process was a shambles, with untrained staff copying and pasting tender documents with no real understanding of what they were doing, according to Paul Quinn, the new chief procurement officer.

Mr Quinn has come from the private sector to help restructure and streamline the €9bn-a-year of government procurement which covers everything from bullets for the army to paper for schools.

Speaking at the Cork Chamber business breakfast, he said staff in public procurement lack the training to realise they are placing barriers in the way of SMEs when they simply copy and paste tender documents.