{"id":598741,"date":"2026-08-20T03:02:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T03:02:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/598741\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T03:02:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T03:02:35","slug":"auditors-find-over-e14m-in-garda-contracts-that-broke-procurement-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/598741\/","title":{"rendered":"Auditors find over \u20ac14m in Garda contracts that broke procurement rules\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na reported just \u20ac3.1m in contracts that broke procurement rules<\/a> only for State auditors to discover there were actually contracts worth over \u20ac14m.<\/p>\n

A review found the original return was incomplete, with dozens of contracts omitted and suppliers missing from information provided by the force.<\/p>\n

An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na had initially reported 22 contracts that were both non-competitive and non-compliant with public procurement rules.<\/p>\n

However, when the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) checked the return, additional suppliers were identified.<\/p>\n

A revised list submitted by An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na contained 65 contracts worth \u20ac14.2m that were non-compliant and non-competitive.<\/p>\n

The C&AG warned incomplete reporting created a risk that inaccurate updates could be given to the Public Accounts Committee and potentially mislead its members.<\/p>\n

The audit classified the issue as \u201chigh\u201d risk and said management needed to ensure procurement rules were followed and that reporting of breaches was accurate.<\/p>\n

Separate checks also raised concerns over a Garda contracts register.<\/p>\n

It found 44 cases where no contract duration was recorded, 19 where no value was listed, and 37 where the procurement category recorded was simply the relevant Garda district.<\/p>\n

There were 62 cases where a supplier contact was missing and another contract where no internal reference number was available.<\/p>\n

The findings came despite correspondence to the Public Accounts Committee in June 2025 saying a contract register project was fully complete.<\/p>\n

The audit also looked at the procurement of some hotels used to accommodate garda\u00ed during Operation Argillite for the Europa League final in 2024.<\/p>\n

The C&AG asked why remaining hotels \u2014 where spending exceeded \u20ac25,000 \u2014 had not been included in procurement reporting.<\/p>\n

An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na said there was insufficient time to run a procurement process, but all available hotels in Dublin were canvassed for accommodation.<\/p>\n

Spending on the event has already been the subject of controversy after an audit documented \u20ac248,500 that was spent on accommodation that was not used.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na reported just \u20ac3.1m in contracts that broke procurement rules only for State auditors to discover…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,72,45775,61,60],"class_list":["post-598741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-an-garda-siochana","tag-business","tag-government-spending","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=598741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}