Ms Cep Carty:

With regard to our own procurement, we had a number of contracts that were legacy issues from when the Department was split. We have been working our way through re-tendering for those contracts. We have appointed a procurement officer and as far as possible, the Department tries to comply with the rules. There are some cases where we cannot, for example, where we might have to use a specific adviser who might have expertise in a particular area, but that will always be signed off at the most senior level. Going back to the point on the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, it is the case that when our Department was split in 2011, the focus for the Department of Finance was on the revenue side and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform became the finance Ministry for expenditure.

We are all focused on value for money but the focus for the Department of Finance has had to be, as the Secretary General said, on getting back to a balanced budget whereas Secretary General Watt has the focus on the expenditure side.