Commission continues An Post probe

The European Commission has asked the Government for more information about the awarding of the social welfare payments contract to An Post.
The Commission has been probing the contract on foot of complaints from the US company Transaction National Services (TNS). An Post was awarded the contract to deliver social welfare payments back in 1999 and it is worth around E45m a year to the loss-making postal services company.

The contract, however, was not put out to tender and this lies at the centre of the complaint made by TNS.

The European Commission began investigating the contract last summer. In the latest round of the investigation, the Commission has given the Government until 19 February to reply to a number of questions it put to it before Christmas, according to a report in today’s Irish Times.

For its part, the Government has always maintained that because the contract was for a social service as opposed to a financial one, it was under no obligation to put it out to tender, an opinion which was reiterated by the Attorney General at the time.