Significant procurement oversight gaps as €3.36bn awarded following single-bid competitions
05-11-2026
Independent TD for Offaly, Carol Nolan, has said that replies to parliamentary questions she submitted to the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Jack Chambers, have revealed significant gaps in the State’s ability to analyse procurement activity across the public sector and identify emerging procurement risks at a system-wide level.
The minister has confirmed to Deputy Nolan that no central database of contract amendments is maintained at national level and that public bodies are generally not required to publish details of cost increases or project delays arising after contracts have been awarded.
“That makes it difficult to establish a comprehensive picture of how public contracts evolve after award,” said Deputy Nolan.
The replies further show that approximately one in five public procurement competitions result in only a single compliant tender, with more than 4,100 contracts worth approximately €3.36 billion awarded in those circumstances between 2021 and 2026.
The 2026 figures reflect the position recorded at the time of the Minister’s reply and do not represent a full calendar year.
Deputy Nolan added that the issue highlighted by the replies “is not the absence of audit or accountability mechanisms, but the absence of a central capability to analyse sufficient volumes of procurement data, identify patterns and assess risks across the procurement system as a whole.”
“Approximately one in five procurement competitions attracts only a single compliant tender, yet the Minister has confirmed there is no central analysis of supplier concentration across the system and no formal automated mechanism for identifying potential indicators of collusive bidding.”
“Equally concerning is the confirmation that there is no centrally mandated review process triggered simply because a competition receives only a single compliant tender. Whether any additional scrutiny takes place is largely a matter for the contracting authority concerned.”
Deputy Nolan said that while bodies such as the Comptroller and Auditor General perform an essential oversight role in relation to public expenditure, the minister’s replies suggest that important procurement information remains dispersed across individual public bodies rather than being systematically analysed across the State:
“Taxpayers are entitled to expect more than compliance with minimum rules. They are entitled to expect that the State has the ability to identify recurring patterns, assess emerging risks, monitor competition and learn lessons across the procurement system.”
“If the State can monitor welfare payments, tax receipts and public expenditure in extraordinary detail, it is difficult to understand why it cannot maintain a more comprehensive picture of procurement risks, contract amendments and competition levels across public procurement.”
Deputy Nolan said the Government should now move to strengthen procurement oversight arrangements by establishing a dedicated procurement intelligence and monitoring function.
” The Government should establish a dedicated national procurement intelligence and monitoring function within the public procurement framework, tasked with analysing procurement trends, monitoring competition levels, tracking contract amendments and identifying systemic risks across the public sector.”
“Taxpayers should not have to rely on parliamentary questions to piece together what happens to public contracts after they have been awarded.”
“Public procurement accounts for tens of billions of euro in expenditure every year. Oversight arrangements should reflect that reality. The era of fragmented information held across hundreds of separate contracting authorities should come to an end.”
“Ultimately the minister has now acknowledged that no central analysis of supplier concentration is carried out, no comprehensive national database of contract amendments is maintained, and no formal automated mechanism exists to identify potential indicators of collusive bidding. The question now is not whether these gaps exist, but how the Government intends to address them,” Deputy Nolan concluded.
ENDS