Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We have noted that request.

On the work programme for Mr. Harkness, the committee will next meet on 3 May. Mr. McCarthy is not here, but I want to be clear that at next week's meeting we want to receive a list of all of the organisations which have not yet submitted accounts to the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General for 2017. The deadline for their receipt was the end of March. We wrote to all organisations in December and want to see a big improvement in the number of accounts received. We are here to ensure public accountability and the first step in that process is the production of financial statements. The second is the auditing of those statements. We are not interfering in that process. However, the first duty of the boards of organisations is to ensure the accounts are sent to the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General for audit. Before the meeting next week we need a full list of the organisations which have not yet submitted accounts for audit. We have actually given them a month's grace because they were due to be submitted by the end of March. The Comptroller and Auditor General will carry out the audit. We are proposing to invite up to ten of the organisations that have not submitted accounts to a committee session. It will be short, with perhaps one speaker for each of the organisations represented to explain why they had not complied with their statutory duties. We will require the assistance of the Comptroller and Auditor General to rate the organisations in terms of turnover, as it is most likely that we will invite the bigger organisations. I am aware that most of the really big organisations have probably complied with their statutory duties, but there are many middle-sized organisations that might not have done so. It would be useful, therefore, to receive some indication of the turnover of each organisation for the previous year in order to ensure the organisations we invite are reasonably substantial and people know about them. At next week's meeting we hope to set a date for a meeting with those organisations, but we would appreciate it if a list could be provided in order that invitations could be sent and that the organisations were put on public notice. Does that make sense? Mr. Harkness is obviously ticking off each organisation as the accounts come in. I am not saying the organisations have sent fully completed financial statements, but once something has been lodged, at least the ball is rolling. We want to focus on those organisations that have not yet submitted anything. Mr. Harkness or Mr. McCarthy can check with the committee during the week, if necessary. There is no point in dealing with organisations which have not yet submitted accounts for last year as we accept that it will be months before the audit process is complete.