Mr. Brendan Rogers:

There are qualified audits across programme countries. We carry out an enormous number of audits ourselves and commission private companies to undertake further ones. The Comptroller and Auditor General carries out audits also. When we refer to a "qualified audit" it may indicate something as simple as an unreconciled travel and subsistence claim. The term "qualified audit" is used where the best standards have not been met. We are very unhappy with that and have a system in place in all programme countries to track those particular audits and to determine if there have been improvements or if thing have got worse. The general trajectory over the past five to ten years has been one of improvement, although that can vary from country to country, year to year. We are absolutely on top of the matter and work very closely with our audit and evaluation unit. The qualified audit statistics referred to are not only in Irish Aid funds, but include Irish Aid pooled funds. It is not a question only of Irish money, but of other donor funding. Where a national audit office indicates that there are a certain number of qualified audits in a ministry, we follow up on it.