This article is from page 6 of the 2013-03-26 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 6 JPG
THE issue at the centre of the question over shadowed by allegations of corruption at this month’s adjourned meeting of the county council seemed to centre on a change in method of hiring local authority contractors.
In the public gallery were council workers frustrated at a new IT system that calculated tenders on a point system.
In his motion Cllr Gerry Flynn (Ind) asked the County Manager to provide comprehensive information concerning contractors employed by Clare County Council.
He specifically asked for a list of any of the council staff, elected mem- bers or members of their immediate family, provide goods or services either directly or indirectly to Clare County Council “in the interests of accountability and transparency in Local Government.”
The Shannon Councillor also inquired if contractors were compliant with working conditions set out by the Local Government Advisory Board such as rates of pay, pension fund, sick fund, and revenue.
He also asked for the terms of reference governing senior engineers granting contracts and if the council supplied a list of successful contractors to the trade unions.
Speaking on behalf of the council executive, Senior Executive Officer Corporate Services Michael McNa- mara said the council was not aware of any Contractor or Sub-Contractor that was incompliant with the various statutory requirements.
He also assured the councillor that a list of all successful contractors is forwarded to the unions.
“The Council’s purchasing procedures sets out levels of expenditure which staff at various levels have authority to approve subject to availability of budget.
“It is the responsibility of each approver to ensure compliance with the various statutory requirements,” he continued.
Furthermore Part 15 of the Local Government Act 2001 provides for an Ethical Framework for the Local Government Service ensure that up to 137 employees and elected members complete a declaration of occupation, land ownership, shares, directorships annually and these are available for inspection.
Cllr Oliver Garry (FG) said that in his experience the tendering landscape has changed significantly in the last five years.
“I am a director of a company but I want to make it clear we do not tender for Clare County Council contracts.
“We do tender for other public contracts but not Clare County Council,” he said.
“Anything we tender for now is 100 per cent on price. Once it was on experience, or equipment or the engineer may even have had a say, but now the only concern is price.”