Concern over gardaí’s ‘lack of paper trail’ with IT firm

AN INTERNAL Garda Síochána report has raised concerns over how the force managed its multi-million euro IT contract to consultancy firm Accenture, RTÉ has reported.

Garda auditors found that new rates of pay were verbally agreed, with no written agreement on the Garda side, and that some Accenture contractors did not record the hours they had worked.

The Garda internal audit section report, which was seen by RTÉ’s This Week, found that ‘no assurance’ can be given that procurement rules were being properly followed on major IT contracts, and warned elements of an IT contract with Accenture were ‘not best practice’.

The contract with Accenture was agreed for five years in 2009 but was extended several times without going back to full tender, and the consultancy firm was paid €26.5million in 2015 alone.

While the internal audit, signed-off by the head of Garda audit services Niall Kelly last August, does not criticise the service provided by Accenture, it said there was no paper trail between gardaí and the company over a key financial agreement.

Garda management told the audit team new rates of pay had been ‘verbally agreed’ between a senior garda and Accenture.

Contractors for Accenture also had what the report called ‘a much weaker system of accountability’ on how they recorded hours worked.