Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

One of the best ways in which procurement can be strengthened is through training. The Office of Government Procurement has a skills academy where it trains and teaches staff responsible for purchasing across government how to procure successfully. It is important that we have a good e-tenders platform. The platform is being replaced and a new tender has been placed to get a new software system for bidding for contracts.

The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General has an important role in making procurement stronger. The office investigates when exceptional circumstances with procurement arise or procurement has fallen short and it rings reports on such matters before the Committee of Public Accounts. The relevant Accounting Officer can be cross-examined at the committee and we can discover where changes need to be made. I assure the Deputy that this process is always taken very seriously and lessons are learned from it.

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