Dublin Dental University Hospital did not tender for contracts worth €780k

Dublin Dental University Hospital awarded a contract to Jennings Design Studio for the delivery of projects at the institution’s south Dublin campus from August 2023.

A dental training hospital funded by the HSE spent nearly €800,000 on a specialist architecture firm without a competitive tender.

Dublin Dental University Hospital awarded a contract to Jennings Design Studio for the delivery of roughly five projects at the institution’s south Dublin campus from August 2023.

Despite at least €780,000 having been paid to the firm to date, only one of those projects — the overhaul of surgical suites at the hospital — has been completed so far.

A preliminary audit conducted by State auditor the Comptroller and Auditor General in December 2023 noted that the contract to retain Jennings Design had been secured following a comparison of three quotes from separate firms, rather than a full tender competition as mandated under procurement law. Under EU rules, contracts valued at more than €50,000 need to be tendered for via a public process, with details of that competition published on the Government’s eTenders portal.

The hospital, whose procurement process has been the focus of a number of reviews over the past two years by organisations including the Comptroller and Auditor General and professional services firm Mazars, disputed claims that the Jennings contract was secured without a tender, stating that Jennings itself had been “appointed as the principle and they were then responsible for the procurement of the other design services”.

A spokesperson added that Jennings’ services had been “initially tendered for via a competitive tender process”.

However, in raising the issue regarding that tender process the C&AG, in its pre-audit document, noted that “it is our understanding that DDUH obtained three quotes, as opposed to public [sic] advertising the contract [on eTenders] which should have occurred, given the value of the contract”.

In its subsequently published annual report for 2023, the hospital noted that its non-compliant procurement had jumped by more than €336,000 in just 12 months to €774,000 — some 13% of its total annual expenditure of €6.1m — with that jump partially attributable to “two instances where cumulative spend on a number of projects and services exceeded procurement thresholds”.

The hospital spokesperson said that while only one of the planned projects has been completed to date — at a separate cost of roughly €950,000 — the remainder are “all complete in terms of full design services packages”.

“As such, Jennings Design and the other subcontracted companies were entitled to payment for the completion of these services to tender stage,” they said. However, sources close to that process emphatically denied that the design packages were  completed, with one asking: “If they’re so ready, then why haven’t they gone to tender?”

The Irish Examiner previously reported that the dental hospital promoted the long-term personal assistant of its CEO to the role of head of IT without a competition — and also that the institution had spent more than €160,000 on food for lunch meetings for staff without a competitive tender.

Meanwhile, in its multi-year audit of the hospital, Mazars concluded that only “limited assurance” could be given regarding the adequacy of the institution’s purchasing governance.

The hospital previously noted that the “principal reason” for its non-tendered spending was the fallout from “a number of factors” such as covid-19, the HSE cyberattack of May 2021, and “resourcing challenges”.