An audit of the Meals on Wheels service found frequent complaints about irregular delivery times and mismatches between the food selected and that provide.
The audit was carried out in 2018 by the National Audit Office which presented the findings to parliament on Wednesday.
The service is provided by the Active Ageing and Community Care Directorate, which was reprimanded for failing to take action in cases of contractual breaches by the contractor.
In 2018, a total of 169,561 meals were delivered by James Caterers to an average of 629 clients per month. The meals cost of €4.20 each. While the price of the three-course menu meal was deemed reasonable by the NAO, the quality of the service itself was unsatisfactory on various fronts.
“As implied by customer surveys, contractual non-compliance translates itself into client frustration as older persons are never sure of delivery times. In some cases they had to make extra efforts involving going down and up the stairs to collect their meals. In other instances, the delivery was different to what was selected,” the NAO said.
Some of the shortcomings were partly due to vague clauses in the contract, such as a clause stating that meals must be delivered anytime between 8am and 6pm. Such a broad time window was disrupting the clients’ routine and plans, while meal times were not being respected causing “undue hardships” for elderly persons, the NAO said.
In this respect the directorate had said that the matter would be addressed through new tender specifications.
The NAO said one of the reasons for the prolonged delivery times was due to the contractor using just five vehicles, which was half the minimum number established in the contract. The provider had claimed he had a shortage of drivers.
“Delivering meals in an environment of congested roads and parking problems contribute to the decline in service quality. However, the operator could do significantly more – in terms of contractual provisions – to alleviate these logistical problems,” the report said.
“The shortfall in the contractor’s resources deployed for the delivery of the Meals on Wheels Service breaches contractual provisions,” the NAO added.
The matter was, in part, resolved at an additional cost to the directorate of around €95,000 (excluding VAT) to enable the service provider to improve the service delivery, the report said.
During the period under review over 200 complaints were lodged, including instances whereby food was left on the doorstep or at the ground floor of an apartment block. However, the directorate pledged to address the matter through an addendum signed last November.
The audit also revealed that 10 out of 30 service users monitored by the NAO terminated the service within 200 days.
On its part the directorate was reprimanded for not invoking penalty clauses in cases of contractual breaches such as the shortfall of the number of vehicles used.