Mr. Finbarr Kelly:

The first time this matter was brought to the attention of the Secretary General of My Department was, I understand, when Mr. Harkness wrote to him on 26 March 2014 and he enclosed a copy of the report conducted by his office at that time. Our Secretary General asked officials, including me, to have a look into the matter to see what was the current status, to see what was being done and to report back to him, which I did. In turn, we prepared a draft reply for our Secretary General- Accounting Officer to the Attorney General's office. We welcomed the opportunity to comment on the report. The Secretary General asked us to liaise with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine regarding the report's findings, which we did. We were assured by the Department that all the necessary efforts were being made by the Accounting Officer and the relevant sections of the Department to ensure all the report's recommendations would be implemented in full, in particular the recommendations made in regard to the accounts production and making good the issues identified in what was then paragraph 2.12 of the report.