The supplier Advance Pitstop has accused the Government's financial watchdog of "manifest errors" in its report on the company's contract to supply tyres and other services to the Garda.
The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General last month accused the company of overcharging the Garda and providing unnecessary services in its dealings with the Garda's transport section.
The company yesterday sent a reply to the C&AG's office rebutting the main accusations made against it.
The report in November was prompted by newspaper accounts earlier this year that members of the Garda enjoyed corporate hospitality - including holidays in Spain, Portugal and Italy - paid for by Advance Pitstop. The company does not deny providing the hospitality but challenges the findings made by the C&AG on its services to the Garda.
It says it fairly tendered for the service, and its tender was accepted because it provided a good service at a competitive price.
The company has also expressed concern that the C&AG failed to furnish it with a copy of its report before publication on November 21st.
In a reply delivered to the C&AG yesterday, Advance Pitstop, a subsidiary of the US tyre company Continental, said "The failure prevented the company from having a reasonable opportunity to correct any manifest errors or furnish comments or clarifications on proposed conclusions.
"The result is that the report contains many erroneous conclusions based on incorrect facts and is unfairly damaging to the reputation of Advance Pitstop, its directors and staff and the Garda S∅ochβna generally including the individual members who were involved in the activity described in your report."
One of the main criticisms levelled against the company was that there was excessive tyre consumption. The C&AG said that between 1998 and 2000 there was a 33 per cent increase on the number of tyres purchased in the previous three years. Advance Pitstop says the base figure of 6,000 tyres supplied in 1997 used by the C&AG is wrong.
The company says: "The correct figure for that year was 8,200 tyres. When using the correct figure for 1997, the actual growth was an astoundingly low figure of 3 per cent, this in spite of the fact that an extra 250 vehicles (18 per cent increase) were added to the Garda fleet in the same period.
"This grossly incorrect statement was damaging to the company as it impacted on several other incorrect conclusions in your report and was widely reported in the media."
Advance Pitstop says that the C&AG was aware, while compiling its report, that details of its 1997 tender documents with the Garda had been concealed from the company by one of its employees.
"Once the possibility of a problem was realised by the company, a copy of the tender documents was obtained from the Government Supplies Agency during the week of February 19th, 2001, as the company's copy was missing from the files. This showed that the pre-tender prices were still being invoiced.
"Every single invoice issued by Advance Pitstop to the 115 different accounts involved, amounting to over 13,000 in number in the period, contained details of each item supplied, the relevant discount rate and the price charges as it was known to the company's management team. There was never any question of the company attempting to conceal any aspect of its dealings with the garda∅."
It also says the C&AG claims that civilian wear rates on tyres are 25,000 to 30,000 miles when this should be between 18,000 and 20,000 miles.
The company says the report's claim that the average mileage by Garda cars between tyre changes of 15,000 miles is "extremely low" is not correct. It points to the comparative figure for British police vehicles which is "somewhere in the order of 8,000 to 9,000 miles". Advance Pitstop says that the mileage achieved by the tyres on Garda fleet is "very good".
The company also flatly denies the C&AG suggestion that it owed £208,000 to the Garda. "This claim," it says, "totally ignores credit notes issued for £146,242 covering the 1998-2000 period and an accepted price increase of 4 per cent over the three-year period amounting to £66,000."
It also denies that additional services charged by the company were excessive.
Advance Pitstop is the largest tyre supplier in the State and has 32 outlets and an annual turnover of £27 million.
The fact that it has so many outlets was one of the main reasons its tender was accepted, as it provides local services in each Garda division.
The company says the suggestion by the C&AG that it charged the Garda more for tyres than the Army is fundamentally flawed.
It says it provides fitting and servicing for the Garda, while the Army simply buys tyres in bulk from the Advance Pitstop main depot and then fits and services its own vehicles.
The contract with the Garda is worth an estimated £600,000 annually and represents about 2.5 per cent of Advance Pitstop's turnover.
If the company loses the Garda contract it is not felt likely it has recourse to sue for damages because of the legal privilege enjoyed by the C&AG's office.
After the C&AG issued its report, the Labour Party called for an independent inquiry into reports that garda∅ and a senior civilian employee in the Garda transport section accepted free holidays. This matter is still under internal Garda investigation.
It is not known yet if this will lead to internal disciplinary action.
A spokeswoman for the comptroller's office said they had received the report from Advance Pitstop and this would be reviewed.