Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

Within the central government area, the Accounting Officer is usually the Secretary General or Civil Service head of a Department or office to whom the Minister for Finance has assigned the responsibility for preparing the annual appropriation account for Votes under his or her aegis. In addition to preparing the appropriation accounts, Accounting Officers are responsible for a range of functions within their Departments, including value-for-money initiatives, internal control and internal auditing. While most functions exercised by Secretaries General derive from the appropriate Minister to whom he or she is accountable, the responsibilities of a Secretary General as Accounting Officer are personal and derive directly from statute. Accounting Officers do not account for the actions of Ministers and in their appearances before the Committee of Public Accounts, they are prohibited from questioning or expressing an opinion on the merits of any policy of the Government or a Minister of the Government or on the merits of the objectives of such a policy.

With regard to the Department of public expenditure and reform, Mr. Robert Watt, Secretary General of the Department, is the Accounting Officer for the Department's Vote, together with the Votes for superannuation and retired allowances, the President's establishment and the Secret Service. Prior to the establishment of the Department, the functions now assigned to the Department were within the remit of the Department of Finance, where the Accounting Officer up to the time in question was Mr. Kevin Cardiff, Secretary General of the Department of Finance.

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