Planning Authority to spend €500,000 on giveaways in charm offensive

In one of the most bizarre procurement requests The Shift has ever seen, the Planning Authority (PA) issued a call for tenders worth a total of almost half a million euros, asking potential suppliers to submit offers to provide enormous amounts of “giveaway” items like stress balls and cooler bags with the PA’s logo on it.

The tender is divided into four lots, which can either be claimed by one supplier or divided into four separate contracts: Lot 1 is for “office related giveaways”, Lot 2 is for “generic giveaways”, Lot 3 is for “kids related giveaways”, and Lot 4 is for “secondary and post-secondary students related giveaways”.

According to the estimated procurement values of these contracts, Lot 1 is set to cost taxpayers €114,160, Lot 2 at €193,460, Lot 3 at €43,490, and Lot 4 at €148,720, with a collective estimated value of €499,830.

The call for tenders also stipulates that the PA “reserves the right to increase quantities, should the Authority be required to participate in additional events or activities that are not foreseen at this stage.”

The PA’s decision to spend half a million euros on branded freebies to be gifted to employees and students makes sense when considering just how widely unpopular the Authority is – a reputation that steadily deteriorated because of its permissive stance towards rampant overdevelopment in the country.

While the items earmarked in Lot 1 are fairly generic stationery items which would typically be issued to employees for their personal use, Lots 2 – 4 are a bit further off the normalcy scale.

Among other things, Lot 2 requests 15,000 cotton shopping bags, 7,000 recycled glass bottles, 6,000 lunchboxes with cutlery, and even an order for 5,000 cooler bags.

Lot 3 and Lot 4, on the other hand, were clearly issued as an attempt to enhance the Authority’s profile among student populations.

Lot 3, which simply mentions “kid related” giveaways, includes an order for 6,000 colouring sets, 4,000 “DIY robot or STEM kits”, and even 7,000 stress balls (presumably, to be kept close at hand for whenever someone decides to turn your neighbour’s house into a perpetual construction site).

Also included in Lot 4 are orders for 3,000 mini aluminium torches, 3,000 power banks, 3,000 pocket mirrors, and 2,000 “smart trackers” which can “provide real-time location tracking” via an app on your smartphone.

According to the tender document, bidders can submit their offers on 23 December. It is not yet known whether any bidders have expressed any interest in this offer.