As part of a wide ranging contribution on the overall financial state of Mayo County Council at its monthly meeting, Cllr Peter Flynn hit out at the procurement polices of the council and those responsible for running it. The Westport based Fine Gael councillor said: “We’ve John Maughan (procurement officer for Mayo County Council ), who knows nothing about procurement. All he does is alienate people it seems. I spoke to one person who sourced all the supplies for their office from the one supplier in town (Castlebar ). Now they have eight suppliers, eight purchase orders, eight different things to sign off on. It probably costs three times as much in the end.”
Responding to Cllr Flynn, county manager Peter Hynes said: “I’m satisfied that we have a very effective section. The office gave a review in February where it was outlined that a saving of €1.2 million was made in procurement.” He also outlined that the council had to follow national guidelines on procurement where 80 per cent is sourced nationally and 20 per cent locally and the council is not near that ratio yet and one of the items that has to be sourced nationally is stationery.
The works of the procurement office under John Maughan was also defended by Cllr Gerry Ginty and Cllr Eddie Staunton. Cllr Staunton said: “I’m totally disgusted that someone would be blackguarded in his absence.” Meanwhile Cllr Ginty praised Mr Maughan’s work and savings achieved for the council in recent years. Cllr Flynn responded saying: “With the excess of the last 10 to 15 years in procurement a 12-year-old could have got savings.”
