Council's purchasing policy risks rates protest

‘They are paying rates to a Council that won’t buy a bin liner off them’ – Kilcoyne.

Businesses angry with procurement rules

Ciara Galvin

AN order from Mayo County Council directing its staff not to buy items from local suppliers could spark a rates protest by businesses. That is according to Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne.
In a notice issued by Mayo County Council, staff have been ordered not to buy supplies from local shops, such as Heatons, NCF and Sweeneys, in the county town.
The notice to council staff, which ordered that ‘tools and small items’ no longer be purchased from local suppliers, was brought up at the monthly Council meeting last week.
The notice went on to outline that if tools like ‘shovels, brushes, saws, sledges, pickaxes’ and small items like ‘nails’ and ‘staples’ were needed, staff should contact the Council office for more information.
Cllr Kilcoyne told The Mayo News yesterday (Monday) that the notice was ‘no use to the business people and rate players in Mayo’.
“This has implications for employment in Mayo,” he said. “If sales are down, they have to let people down. I have had a number of businesses on to me about thinking of not paying rates. Businesses have got together and talked about not paying,” said Cllr Kilcoyne.
“Businesses are saying ‘they expect us to pay rates but not do business with us’. They are paying rates to a Council that won’t buy a bin liner off them,” he added.    

Compliance
Fellow Independent councillor Frank Durcan is also unhappy with the Council’s direction to staff, saying that whoever produced and circulated the notice ‘should be dismissed’. “Staff are paid by rate payers and they [businesses] should be supported,” he said.
In a statement circulated to councillors, Director of Services Tom Gilligan explained that the Government’s Office of Government Procurement has awarded a national contract for the supply of tools and hardware to all local authorities.
He went on to say that Mayo County Council’s procurement section is ‘responsible and obliged’ to circulate details of all national contracts to staff.
“Procurement practices are subject to audit and scrutiny under the Comptroller and Auditor General (Amendment) Act 1993. Management has overall responsibility for ensuring that there is an appropriate focus on good practice in purchasing and that procedures are in place to ensure compliance with all relevant guidelines.”
The statement concluded by saying that public bodies were ‘required to comply with their obligations under national law and guidelines’.
Cllr Kilcoyne has questioned the logic in sourcing goods outside the county, querying whether goods sourced in another county can be much cheaper.
He has also questioned the policy’s efficiency. “If a man breaks a shovel does he have to wait for another one to be sent over from Roscommon?”     
A spokesperson for Mayo County Council declined to comment on the matter.