Prison whistleblower criticises 'ridiculous' delay over disclosure

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A whistleblower who made a protected disclosure to the Irish Prison Service over matters relating to procurement has said it is “ridiculous” that the issues they raised have taken nearly 18 months to resolve.

The senior official within the prison service first raised a number of issues in early 2018 with line management regarding large amounts of work being placed with a particular company — which had separately held a maintenance contract with the IPS since 2014 — allegedly outside of any valid tender or procurement process.

When no response was received, the official raised the same issues with the secretary general of the Department of Justice in September 2019.

As a direct result of that action, the issues were investigated and a formal review of the various procurement processes involved was commissioned from consultants EY in March 2020.

Report not yet published

However, the whistleblower has alleged that despite that review being largely completed last September, the report itself has yet to be published.

It is also alleged that the company in question has continued with its current contracts — and has been awarded others — despite the whistleblower requesting that they be paused pending the completion of that investigation.

Meanwhile, regarding a separate issue involving the granting of a tender in 2019 concerning works on a laundry room at Portlaoise Prison — allegedly to a bidder which did not represent the best return on investment — the same whistleblower lodged a protected disclosure.

No formal record

The whistleblower alleged that no formal record had been kept of the tender evaluation process, that the contract was not awarded to the lowest priced contractor despite cost being the sole tender evaluation.

When no action had been taken by the Department of Justice after 12 months the whistleblower wrote to the Department to express their opinion that the delay was “inordinate and unjustifiable”.

“It is ridiculous for an inquiry to take this long,” the complainant said.

The issues have now been raised with the Public Accounts Committee in the hopes of jumpstarting the investigation.

In response to a query from the Irish Examiner, the department confirmed that the report “is not yet finalised”.