DUBLIN City Council has rejected new claims that it
broke EU procurement rules when it entered into a contract to build and operate
the controversial Poolbeg incinerator.
Anti-incineration campaigner and Sandymount resident,
Joe McCarthy, maintains that the council should have retendered the contract
for the scheme but claimed they failed to do so.
Mr McCarthy, who spearheaded a successful campaign to
scupper proposals for a separate incinerator in Rathcoole in 2009, claims that
documents he received on foot of a Freedom of Information request show that
Dublin City Council breached EU Public Procurement directives in regard to its
contract for the waste-to-energy facility.
Mr McCarthy, an engineer and scientist, has formally
lodged a complaint with the European Commission regarding the council’s use of
public monies and EU cohesion funds for the procurement of advisors and for a
contractor for the scheme.
The main thrust of his complaint is a claim that the
contract for the facility was awarded to a company that did not bid for the
tender.
In addition, he claims the amount the council spent on
“client representative services
?, which involved the payment of consulting
engineering and public relations firms working on the project, was over four
times the amount awarded in the original tender.
He told Southside People that internal city council
documents released under the Freedom of Information Act confirm that the
council originally identified a requirement for an incinerator of just 400,000
tonnes per annum to be operated over a 20-year-period.
However, he noted that the actual contract signed with
US firm Covanta was for 600,000 tonnes over a 25-year-period.
“They are
playing games with numbers,
? he claimed.
“The city did not need a 600,000 tonne
incinerator. It only needed 400,000, according to the original minutes that I
found under the Freedom of Information.
?
He also pointed out that the original negotiations for
the operation of the facility took place with only one bidder, namely Elsam of
Denmark.
“When they changed their mind on providing finance for
the project the council started negotiations with an entirely new partner,
Covanta,
? Mr McCarthy added.
A spokeswoman for Dublin City Council said:
“We are
confident the complaint is vexatious and will not be upheld.
?
Southside People contacted Covanta but its
spokesperson in Ireland said the company was unavailable for comment.