Advance Pitstop apparently fitted 30 tyres on a Garda car with only 75,000 miles on its clock, according to the report Purchasing of Tyres by the Garda S∅ochβna published yesterday. Another car with similar mileage had 10 tyres supplied.
The company also made wrong recordings of mileage travelled by Garda cars between fittings. One car was recorded as travelling 89,000 miles in 30 days - an average 4,400 miles a day and another as having travelled 32,000 miles in the same period.
Pitstop also often filled Garda tyres with nitrogen at £1.20 a fill rather than air. An extraordinary number of tyre changes also involved the fitting of new valves, for which the force was charged £52,000 between 1998 and 2000.
More than 40 per cent of all fittings also appeared to involve wheel alignment at significant further cost. On top of these "extras" the Garda was also paying between 15 and 26 per cent more for tyres than it should have. Advance Pitstop, which succeeded in virtually gaining a position as sole supplier of tyres to the force, also charged the Garda more for tyres than the price tendered. At the same time key figures in the Garda transport section were enjoying lavish hospitality from Pitstop including holidays in Spain, Portugal and Italy and to soccer matches in Britain.
The Garda transport fleet management had no means of checking on such discrepancies. A computer system costing £47,000 was purchased in February 1998 to provide a "comprehensive fleet management system". Three years later it was still not working, but is recorded to have become active in March this year.
The matter was the subject of an internal Garda investigation and a file has been submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The comptroller's report records that while some 98 per cent of tyres invoiced by Pitstop to the transport section were associated with valid Garda car registration numbers, some 433 tyres were associated with vehicles whose registrations did not accord with any vehicles in the Garda fleet.
The internal Garda investigation, the comptroller records, found that less than half of these transactions had been accounted for. When the Garda investigation had been completed it found a rate of "92 per cent" of these cases involved "clerical error".
"The estimated total overpayment on all goods and services supplied by Advance Pitstop in the period 1998-2000, relative to the prices offered in their tender was around £208,000. This is around 10 per cent of the total amount paid to Advance Pitstop in the three years."
The report pointed out that the tendering process, organised by the Government Supplies Agency began in 1997 and seven companies applied in all.
"...The responsibility for properly evaluating the various offers from the approved suppliers rested with the Garda S∅ochβna. An evaluation was carried out within the transport section, but on the basis of the evidence available, crucial aspects of the evaluation appear to have been seriously misleading.
"...A proper evaluation of the offer from the various approved suppliers would have shown that there were suppliers who were willing to meet at least some of the Garda S∅ochβna's need for tyres at prices significantly less than those Advance Pitstop offered.
"...Ordering of tyre requirements is divided between transport section, who are responsible for specifying what should be bought, and local Garda officers who decide when tyres are required. Garda personnel at unit level have no discretion about the type of tyres fitted on vehicles in their charge.
"However, for control purposes, they should be informed by transport section what tyres should be fitted, and not have to rely on the ...suppliers for such information.
"The management and control systems in place in 1998-2000 in relation to tyre purchasing were completely inadequate. In effect, the Garda S∅ochβna ceded control of key aspects...to Advance Pitstop and allowed themselves, in crucial respects, to become captive to their supplier."
Declan Fahy adds:
A statement from the Garda Press Office late last night said:
"Over the last number of months, since certain irregularities have come to notice in the procurement procedures of tyres for the Garda transport fleet, procedural changes have been introduced.
A finance directorate has been set up...This department is responsible for all issues relating to finance and procurement. All payments are centralised and contracts monitored by this office.
An upgrade of the transport computer system has been put in place, with a systems analyst to carry out the work. Management information is now available from this system, which will help with the management and control of all procurements and payments.
A new contract is in the process of being finalised in relation to the procurement of tyres ..."