Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

Yes, there is. We have reported previously on the mechanisms used by the precursor of the OGP, which was based at that time in the Office of Public Works, on how it calculated savings. We found that the savings estimates presented at that stage, in 2012, were not reliable. It is a very tricky process to calculate savings. What one can be calculating is reductions in expenditure and in some cases, they were being called savings. The point that was made on the importance of taking the life cycle of an expenditure into account would be an aspect that would need to be examined.

We are always concerned that procurement guidelines are followed. It is important that any system of guidelines would not have perverse effects because of the way it is structured. One wants to achieve efficiency and economy, but not at the expense of detrimental effects elsewhere.

A point has been made in a couple of contributions about who is going to come up with the data. There is an obligation on every public body to demonstrate that it is achieving value for money. They should be doing that as a routine. It should not require my office to do the work for them. They should be reporting on where they have achieved savings and how they have achieved value. If that was a routine presentation by Departments in their annual reports and so on, it would be amenable to my office examining it.

It is a vast scope of expenditure. It is interesting that, in a relatively new circular, the feeling from the supply side was that it was not working or, at least, it was not working yet. There is a concern that if it does not work soon, there will not be anything left to save. It is probably a fairly urgent matter.

It is also interesting, from what I have heard this morning, the extent to which they do things differently in other jurisdictions and there may be lessons to learn there. It is probably something the committee can reasonably take up with the OGP, that is, what it has done to look at what happens in other jurisdictions and its reaction to what happens elsewhere that may be helpful. That is a line of questioning.

I have no difficulty with the suggestion that I would do a piece of work but the urgency that has been expressed this morning and the time it will take to commence a piece of work and to report to the committee may not fit.