The last-minute dash by Poots to recruit staff for sea border
Notice of £800k DAERA contracts for checks at ports in Britain only published on Monday
GOVERNMENT officials launched an eleven th hour scramble for staff to check goods before arriving in Northern Ireland, it can be revealed.
Contracts to supply staff to carry out checks were only put together and awarded in recent weeks, with a notice published on Monday.
The contracts worth nearly £800,000, awarded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA), were based on “extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority”.
Details of the Northern Ireland Protocol were first published in 2019.
DAERA, headed by DUP Minister Edwin Poots, was unable to immediately comment.
The contracts, to Securitas and Carlisle Support Services, relate to sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks on live animals and other agri-foods coming in.
Staff stationed at ports in Britain will carry out the checks, according to published notices.
SPS checks are a three-part process: documents, and seals, at British ports, and random physical examination here.
“These services are required for reasons of extreme urgency brought about by events unforeseeable by the contracting authority,” both notices state.
They add these checks will “take place at GB Ports prior to goods moving to NI to ensure the free flow of freight traffic and avoid congestion”.
While the contract start dates are listed as January 1 and 2, and the notices were published on Monday, they referred to needing to be in place by mid-december.
DAERA did not respond to questions about when it was decided to begin the contract process or when the staff were physically in place.
Or if all of them are now carrying out checks.
The contracts were no-bid because “it is in the public interest that staff are urgently put in place to conduct these checks as they are critical to ensure uninterrupted supply of food and goods to NI post EU Exit on 1 January 2021”.
Manchester-headquartered Securitas was awarded a contract worth £513,620, while Liverpool-based Carlisle Support Services will be paid £257,101.
The contracts are for one year with the possibility of an extension.
According to DAERA, there is some flexibility on the checking of goods, with high risk food not of animal origin subject to a reduced rate of physical inspection until April 1.
Further, some “chilled meats, which are usually prevented or restricted from entering the EU from Third Countries, can continue to enter NI from GB under a number of conditions”.
Secretary of State Brandon Lewis recently described SPS checks as similar to ones in place “since about the 19th century”.
On January 1 Mr Lewis tweeted: “There is no ‘Irish Sea Border’.”
He added: “As we have seen today, the important preparations the Government and businesses have taken to prepare for the end of the transition period are keeping goods flowing freely around the country, including between GB and NI.”
Meanwhile, Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has said problems at supermarkets have “now been overcome, pretty much”.
Responding to the DUP’S Westminster leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, Mr Gove said in the Commons yesterday: “But the right honourable gentleman is absolutely right that we need to make sure that we have a sustainable approach for the end of the grace period at the end of March.”
Mr Gove added: “I will be working with Helen Dickinson (chief executive) of the British Retail Consortium and others to do just that.”