Gardaí spent over €15m on procurement outside of public spending laws 

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An Garda Síochána spent over €15m on procurement outside of public spending laws in 2021, including €277,000 for the services of a single doctor.

New figures reveal the force spent €15,037,437 in 2021 on services with no contract or formal tendering process in place.

The largest payments — €6.1m in total — were made for towing services to 20 companies, €3.4m of which was paid to two companies alone. Those payments were non-compliant due to “expired contracts”, the gardaí said. The force said 14 new contracts have now been put in place, with a further 14 to be added within the early months of 2023.

Nearly €3.8m was spent on medical services across 2021. That included payments of €1.9m to Dublin-based out-of-hours service 24 Doc on Call, €944,000 to Fingal out-of-hours service Saab Innovations, and €277,000 of payments marked simply ‘Dr Moloney’.

In an update to the Public Accounts Committee, An Garda Síochána representatives said those payments had been made without a formal agreement due to a “technical error” which had seen contracts put in place in 2021 “not signed and put in place”.

Meanwhile, just under €2.8m was spent in 2021 on translating services “for operational needs”, with a new contract to be put in place in 2023.

The force spent just under €700,000 on cleaning services to 8 separate firms — the largest being €241,000 to Bivest Noonan — which again were “procured for operational needs” and had either an expired contract or none in place to begin with.

The force said that new contracts are now in place, with others in progress.