Mr. Mark Griffin:

The expenditure by the Department in the normal course is audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General as part of the appropriation accounts. I cannot comment on the extent to which the deep dive was done on the individual budget lines by the Comptroller and Auditor General. It is important to say all of this was done by way of public procurement. We have extended the contracts on one or two occasions in line with public procurement rules but we extended them on the basis of the original rates proposed in 2014. That is of significant advantage to the Department.

The other important element on which to comment is the extent of internal management within the Department in governing those costs. Much rigour is applied by colleagues sitting around the table here and by a big team we have in the Department to manage the budget, time sheets, requests for additional work, formal change control procedures and approvals of the quality of work delivered by the various consultancy teams. I am happy the necessary due diligence within the Department is being done, given the levels of expenditure involved. All the invoices are carefully scrutinised by the team and we require detailed narrative work to be carried out, including billable hours and all of that. There is much rigour in place in the Department.