Mr. Robert Watt:

On the wider issue, since the Department was established we have been working on reforming the budgetary system including moving to multi-annual budgets, initiating comprehensive spending reviews and having much more output data. We have worked with the Comptroller and Auditor General on a variety of recommendations he put forward. We worked together on a fiscal transparency review with the IMF. We have published a new value for money code which tries to pick up the lessons we have learned from various reports and examples of inefficient practice, poor practice, poor product specifications and so forth.

I agree with the fundamental point the Chairman is making. As I said in my opening remarks, we need to have a much greater focus on accountability within the system. We cannot improve performance until we deal with accountability. We are in the middle of framing a paper which addresses a number of issues related to accountability. It deals with the relationships between Ministers and senior civil servants, with delegation and having accountability throughout the system. It deals with the importance of publishing clear objectives, naming the officials who are responsible for different projects and ensuring that those officials are able to account directly for what is happening. The Chairman has identified a fundamental issue that must be addressed within the system.