John Bruton (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 68: To ask the Taoiseach the action taken by his Department on each recommendation of the PA consultancy report on the implementation of the strategic management initiative. [15129/04]

Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)
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The PA consulting group's evaluation of the strategic management initiative, published in March 2002, found that the Civil Service was more effective than it was a decade previously and that very positive developments had taken place, particularly as regards openness and accountability, customer service and regulatory reform. The evaluation also found, however, that the next phase of the modernisation agenda would require significant progress on implementation in the internally-focused areas of human resource management, financial management and information systems. In this context, it made a number of specific recommendations which provided a basis for discussions leading to the modernisation programme and associated commitments outlined in Sustaining Progress.

Progress to date in implementing this programme in the Civil Service as a whole, and within individual organisations, has already been extensively documented through the performance verification process established under Sustaining Progress. This commits Departments and offices to the preparation of progress reports for submission to the Civil Service Performance Verification Group, PVG, together with a sectoral report prepared for the Civil Service as a whole.

These reports deal comprehensively with the implementation of the modernisation programme in sections 20 to 26 of Sustaining Progress — a programme which, as noted above, is very much informed by the recommendations arising from the PA evaluation.

Accordingly, in relation to those recommendations which are relevant to each individual organisation, I would refer the Deputy to my Department's own progress report to the Civil Service PVG, while progress on service-wide issues to be implemented at central level — such as changes to central human resource and financial management practices — is detailed in the sectoral report submitted by the Secretary General, Public Service Modernisation, Department of Finance.

These reports, which were prepared in relation to the payments made on 1 January 2004, were published on the Department of Finance website. I understand it is intended to publish the second round of progress reports following a decision by the PVG in respect of the pay increase due on 1 July 2004.

In relation to progress on my Department's modernisation agenda for the first reporting period, the performance verification group highlighted the Department's programme of internal audit and expenditure reviews, the development of the e-Cabinet system, the development of the customer charter and the preparations for the implementation of further modules of the management information framework and human resource management systems, including the devolution of some HR responsibilities. The group also acknowledged the innovative measures relating to training and development that had been developed by the Department.