Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We will check that out.

Correspondence No. 1253, from Robert Watt, Secretary General of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, provides an information note on the models used to protect capital investment by the State in privately or charitably owned institutions. We requested this information following correspondence on Clonkeen College's school playing fields. I propose we note and forward a copy to the individual who raised the matter with the committee. Is that agreed? Agreed.

Correspondence No. 1254, from John McDaid, the chief executive of the Legal Aid Board, provides a response on the procurement of goods and services by the Legal Aid Board outside of a competitive process. He gives a detailed explanation on each item and the effort being made to improve the situation. We will note and publish it and people can take it into account.

Correspondence No. 1258, from Aidan O'Driscoll, Secretary General of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, is a note on the progress of the Haulbowline remediation project in Cork. People can note that and we will publish it.

Correspondence No. 1259, from Derek Moran, Secretary General of the Department of Finance, provides a note on a sunset clause for the duration of the carry forward of losses relief, including international examples. We will note this and consider it as part of our corporation tax report, on which we might have a very quick discussion shortly. We will note this and publish it.

Correspondence No. 1263, from Professor Patrick O'Shea, president of University College Cork, provides an unabridged version of Cork University Foundation's financial statements for 2016. We note and publish them. There we go. Last week we were presented with an abridged version and we said it was not good enough and that we wanted the full version.. If one does not ask one does not get. Heretofore it was not made public, but because we asked we have it now and it is good to have it for the public record.

Correspondence No. 1267, from the Comptroller and Auditor General, Seamus McCarthy, dated 1 May 2018, provides a draft note on the submission of the 2017 financial statements of public bodies to his office. We will discuss this now as part of the work programme. The key item the Committee of Public Accounts must ensure is that proper systems are in place in all of the organisations subject to public audit and that proper corporate governance arrangements are in place for all these organisations. The board of directors, or whoever the most senior people are, have a duty to ensure that proper procedures and systems are in place to account for public money. One of the first basic elements of accounting for public money is to provide accounts that can be audited and discussed in public at this committee. The Comptroller and Auditor General has done various reports on a number of organisations that were slow in producing their annual accounts. Unless we receive financial statements from these organisations we are not even in a position to discuss what is going on in them. Last December, at the request of the committee, I issued a letter to the approximately 250 organisations audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General stating we wanted them to comply with their statutory requirement to have their accounts with the Comptroller and Auditor General by the end of March. The Comptroller and Auditor General has given us a list, which I will summarise but I will not read it all out. We have been dealing with this every week for the past couple of weeks. Out of the almost 300 accounts audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General, only 37 accounts have not been received by his office.