Auditor General's Findings
The Department found that (from 2013/14 to 2011/18) the MOEYI spent $483 Million for contracts above $500,000 to purchase school furniture.
The Dept randomly selected 26 contracts and found that MOEYI awarded them a total of $169 Million to manufacture school furniture.
A fixed price contract was used for a rate that was acceptable to the Ministry of Finance and an arrangement was made for quality checks by the Bureau of Standards. The procurement method used was the direct contract methodology.
The AuGD determined that these contractual arrangements could have benefits but they did not find any evidence of how MoEYI arrived at its decisions to not use a public tender and to use a fixed term contract. MoEY did not provide any analysis including expected savings to eplain its decision to enter into such contracts.
The AuGD also had no evidence that MoEY conducted post-evaluations to determine if the arrangement proved to be a viable method.
Permanent Secretary (current): Maureen Dwyer
Breach Category: Procurement & Contract Management
Permanent Secretary (at breach): Grace McLean
Breach Type: Poor procurement planning
