Central Bank allowed €500,000 in no-bid contract awards
THE Central Bank has awarded six contracts for services without tender processes since March, using a provision in procurement rules that allows public bodies to skip normal competitive procedures in an emergency.
The largest of the six contracts, as the Irish Independent reported last month, went to a US technology services provider for an undisclosed amount for the management of the Central Bank’s data centre.
The Central Bank has now confirmed to the Irish Independent that five further contracts, totalling about €500,000 in value, have been awarded for cleaning services, IT configuration, security system changes and research assistance.
Another small €20k contract for training went to UCD in the absence of other suitable tenders.
The Central Bank has by-passed normal tender processes by invoking a regulation that allows awarding authorities to grant contracts directly when an unforeseeable event beyond the control of the authority creates an extreme urgency preventing the observation of time limits.
The event in this case is understood to be Covid-19.
“In the case of contracts falling within scope of the EU public procurement regime, the Central Bank used the negotiated procedure without prior publication in accordance with Regulation 32 of S.I 284 of 2016,” the Central Bank said in a statement.
The CBI awarded the data centre contract in July to DXC Technology, a New York Stock Exchange listed global IT company with an office in Leixlip, Co Kildare, after the Central Bank Commission decided not to run a competitive procedure “on the grounds of urgency”, according to minutes of the meeting at which the decision was made.
The company was able to renew its existing deal for a further two-year term with an option for two one-year extensions without having to bid against other companies.