Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 19 November 2015

Public Accounts Committee

2014 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 11 - Office of the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform
Vote 12 - Superannuation and Retired Allowances
Vote 18 - Shared Services
Vote 41 - Office of Government Procurement
Chapter 4 - Vote Accounting and Budget Management
Chapter 5 - Management of Government Grants
Chapter 6 - Payroll Accrual for National Accounts
Chapter 7 - National Lottery Fund

10:00 am

Mr. Robert Watt:

No, but there is a circular on the provision of grants, which was the subject of a report. I referred in my opening statement to the fact that we have a new policy circular relating to grants which sets out a statement of principles in terms of clarity, transparency, value for money and so forth. We expect bodies in receipt of grants from the State to procure based on good practice, and that is what we set out within the statement. We hope that happens. As I also mentioned in my opening statement, we have established Benefacts, a single repository of data and information on the sector, which receives €4.4 billion and comprises more than 20,000 entities. Next year we will have a database that shows how much money entities are receiving from the State and what we are getting from that in terms of outcomes and outputs. That will improve their compliance and performance over time and aid this committee in its assessment of the extent to which they are providing value for money for the taxpayer.

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