Readers' Blog: Unless issues with public procurement are addressed we will have more debacles like Children's Hospital
I read a recent Terry Prone article which dealt with aspects of Public Procurement with interest.
As a Procurement Professional, I'm disappointed that Ms Prone provides no concrete advice or solutions for what is, and continues to be, a scourge on the public purse in this country.
I remember, back in the late eighties, when the first Procurement Directives appeared they were followed in the corridors of power by abject fear.
It was felt that the solicitors would take over from the buyers as the avalanche of complaints from disappointed vendors and contractors would land on every local and national government doorstep.
More significant, however, was the odium expressed at senior levels of un-elected government at their possible exclusion from the process of spreading the bounty of national budgets among the deserving organisations - not just the political supporters as suggested by Ms. Prone.
Major efforts were made to provide a base of knowledge and capability to the Procurement specialists in government, local authorities and semi-states by a number of well-intended members of the Irish Institute of Purchasing.
Even the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing in the USA were invited to assist in identifying buyers' knowledge gaps and filling them with relevant and useful education.
The efforts were constantly thwarted by upper echelons of management through inaction, ignoring advice and failure to acknowledge the people who wanted to properly manage the Purchasing process.
And this is where the wheels fall off of the wagon.
The 'Black Box' mentality.
The confidential bidding process can hide anything. It keeps us all 'moving along with nothing to see here.'
The centralising of the Governmental Procurement within the Department of Finance has also failed to achieve its stated goals.
Why? Because the power-brokers don't like it.
Unless these issues are addressed this is not the last time we will be looking at the sort of debacle that has emerged at the National Children's Hospital.
If you would like to have your say on the issue of the day then visit here or send your submission to digitaldesk@examiner.ie
