Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 356: To ask the Minister for Agriculture and Food the consultancies awarded to Deloitte and Touche since 1 July 1997; the cost of each; and the purpose of same. [28411/05]

Mary Coughlan (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)
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Deloitte & Touche has been en-gaged on two contracts since 1997, both ofthem in the capacity of independent certifying body for the Department's CAP guarantee accounts.

The first of the contracts was awarded in 2000 to cover the three year period 2000 to 2002. The value of this contract was €317,054. It was awarded a further contract, again following an open tendering process, in 2003, for the years 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. The contract value is €914,848, on a fixed fee basis. This is broken down per year as €216,368, €224,130, €232,847 and €241,503 for 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 respectively.

Under the provisions of the EU Council Regulation No. 1258/99 on the financing of the Common Agricultural Policy, CAP, and Commission Regulation No. 1663/95, since 1995 the European Commission only finances expenditure that is made by paying agencies accredited by member states. As part of the accreditation process, the regulations require that the annual accounts of the CAP paying agencies in member states must be accompanied by an "attestation" certificate regarding the integrality, exactitude and veracity of the annual accounts. This certificate must be given by a certifying body that is operationally independent of the paying agency.