Government bill still €16bn ‘despite budget challenge’

SAVINGS of €1.6 billion could be made in the budget if the Government cut the fees of contracts awarded to private companies by up to 10%.

The Department of Finance yesterday admitted there is unlikely to be a reduction this year in the €16.3bn public procurement bill, which pays for everything from school equipment to garda cars, medicine and legal fees, despite more value for money in goods and services.

The bill came to €16.3bn last year and will be “in and around that figure” for 2010, according to Deirdre Hanlon of the department’s Procurement Policy Unit. “It would be in the order of €16bn,” she told the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) but could not indicate if there would be better value for this sum.