John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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Question 268: To ask the Minister for Finance if there is a dedicated auditing unit in his Department assessing and monitoring the day-to-day spend of his Department with particular reference to major projects; if so, the number of staff involved; if the staff have accountancy qualifications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26840/04]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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Vote 6 for my Department makes provision for an allocation of €127.341 million for 2004. This is made up of administration expenditure of €47.168 million, €33.045 million of which is pay; programme expenditure of €80.585 million, €41.682 million of which is current expenditure and €38.903 million is capital; and appropriations-in-aid of €412,000. The capital allocation of €38.903 million is divided as follows: decentralisation fund —€20 million; Northern Ireland peace programme and related items* —€8.103 million; disbursements to Departments in the context of Civil Service reform* —€4.534 million; child care initiative on the provision of child care facilities across the Civil Service- €2.25 million; grants in aid* —€2.016 million; and consultancy services —€2 million.

Given these levels of allocation plus the fact that the amounts marked with an asterisk are paid to other Departments or bodies, the Deputy will appreciate that my Department does not have expenditure on major projects. Like all Departments, mine must and does comply with the Department of Finance guidelines for the appraisal and management of capital projects. These guidelines are available on my Department's website at www.finance.gov.ie.

As regards monitoring and assessing the Department's expenditure, every officer who has been allocated a budget in my Department has a responsibility to ensure it is used responsibly and that spending is closely monitored. The Department's financial management system is geared to enable them to do so by making available to them the necessary reports, some of which, for example, show expenditure against profile. In addition, my Department has a finance unit which monitors the expenditure of all departmental business units against their budget allocations and reports to the Department's management advisory committee on a monthly basis. The finance unit is staffed by a half-time principal officer, an assistant principal officer and an administrative officer. There is currently a vacancy for an executive officer. The assistant principal has an accountancy qualification.

My Department also has an internal audit unit which, although not engaged in monitoring day-to-day expenditure, has the role of determining whether the systems, procedures and controls which management operates are being complied with and are capable of achieving policy objectives in the most economic, efficient and effective way. The internal audit unit is staffed by two assistant principal officers, a higher executive officer and a staff officer. One of the assistant principals has an accountancy qualification and the other holds a certificate in internal auditing and is currently undertaking a course in computer audit. The higher executive officer has attended a general course in internal audit. The unit is supervised on a day-to-day basis by a principal officer but reports directly to the audit committee appointed by the accounting officer.

On a more general note, the national development plan community structural funds evaluation unit comes under my Department. The unit has a role in the evaluation of programmes under the national development plan. The unit is staffed by three evaluators, an executive officer and a clerical officer. There are also two vacancies for evaluators. While none of the staff has an accountancy qualification, two of the evaluators hold economics qualifications which are more relevant to the evaluation process required by the CSF which provides that evaluations must address the key evaluation questions relating to rationale, relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and impact of programmes. The European regional development fund financial control unit also comes under my Department. The unit carries out ex-post audits of ERDF and cohesion fund claims to the European Commission. The ERDF unit consists of five staff, of whom four have accountancy qualifications. The unit will take on a further three accountants prior to 31 January 2005.

Finally, the Deputy may be aware of developments such as the expenditure review initiative which involves Departments, including mine, in analysis over a three-year horizon of their programme expenditure and the Capital Investment Framework 2004-2008, which is a multi-annual investment framework. The objectives of the latter include meeting Government priorities for capital investment in the sectors for which the various Departments are responsible; ensuring where appropriate that a proper balance is maintained between different areas of investment; and enabling Departments and their agencies to plan and manage their capital investment programmes more efficiently and effectively. The general conditions of Department of Finance sanction of expenditure under this framework, which was introduced this year, require, inter alia, that Departments report regularly to their management advisory committees on the evaluation, prior to approval, of capital projects, the management of capital projects and progress on their capital programmes.