Mr. Brian Purcell:

We did not regard the letter it had sent as a full response to the audit. It was clear enough that there did not appear to be any dispute with the findings. Essentially, the audit showed up particular weaknesses in the system. In a nutshell, the funding was to cover charitable activities, not administrative costs. What had happened previously was that it had been pretty much accepted on a straightforward basis whatever was put in. The audit identified weaknesses within the internal system for the disbursement of the fund. Following on from this, the recommendations were made that there would have to be a more concise and comprehensive application process whereby the various elements that made up, say, the administrative costs would be dealt with. There was an indicative list of items that could not be included unless they were incurred directly in the provision of front-line services.