Results 12,261-12,280 of 26,396 for speaker:David Cullinane

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: The Comptroller and Auditor General does not receive the reports, however.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: These are two ETBs where problems have occurred. The committee has received a special report from the Comptroller and Auditor General on one ETB which flags up weaknesses in the sector. Whether it is in our work programme or we deal with it now, will we have a meeting in respect of the report? I think we should.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: We need representatives from the Department to appear before the committee to deal with that report, and all the issues which have been flagged in the audit opinion need to be discussed at that meeting. Will we return to this matter in our work programme?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Is it in purgatory?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: The Comptroller and Auditor General's report on the Kildare-Wicklow ETB speaks for itself. It is quite a damning report in highlighting mismanagement, conflicts of interest and poor governance with information not being brought to the attention of the board and just poor decision making. It speaks for itself. We just discussed the Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim ETB, which has accepted its...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: -----so we will not be able to deal with them. I thought the Department's response to the Comptroller and Auditor General report was inadequate to say the least. I have concerns over how it responded to that report. I imagine officials from the Department will be coming in.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Our focus should be on weakness in the processes and procedures, and how improvements can be made.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Does the Office of Public Procurement come under the remit of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: That is all the more reason the Secretary General of that Department should come before us. We have asked for the head of the Office of Public Procurement to come before us as well. Is that correct? Has that invitation been issued?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: I think we should invite him. I understood we were going to invite him. If we did not make that decision, I recommend that we do so.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: To be fair to the individual in question, I agree with Teachta Kelly that there are issues here. Where weaknesses in controls are identified, there is an obligation on an individual who is a senior civil servant to notify the Minister and that did not happen. That is something that we need to probe. We need to give this circular to the individual in advance of him appearing before the...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: I thought we did.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Please bear with me. If we agree to invite people in, I do not think we have to go back to the issue in our work programme as it has been agreed at that point.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Does the Chairman agree that the circular should be sent to him in advance?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Exactly, because we need to know what information he was given as a board member and what meetings he attended and did not attend.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: There were more last week.

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: I appreciate there are witnesses waiting outside. I had flagged earlier-----

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: -----that we should prioritise this on the correspondence. My issue is that we had the Secretary General of the Department before us on this issue. We were dealing specifically with the processes and procedures around procurement and the spend of taxpayers' money in respect of the national children's hospital. We had to drag information out of the Department in respect of the cost...

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Do we get the Department back in with the Mazars report and the documentation we now have and say, "Now let us have the real discussion around where there were weaknesses and failures"?

Public Accounts Committee: Business of Committee (14 Feb 2019)

David Cullinane: Did the Comptroller and Auditor General's office get that report before it came to the Committee of Public Accounts?