Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 174: To ask the Minister for Finance the role of the Centre for Management Organisation and Development within his Department; if CMOD has any role in regard to the development of the PPARS and FISP computer systems; if it is intended that the role of CMOD will be expanded or developed in any way to prevent waste of public money on such projects in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33042/05]

Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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The Centre for Management Organisation and Development is part of the organisation management and training division of my Department and its role is to provide a number of advisory and support services to the Civil Service in the areas of information and communications technology, staff development and management, and common systems development. It also manages delegation arrangements for ICT expenditures in the Civil Service, Garda, Defence Forces, Courts Service and Prisons Service. Delegation is given only where key technical and management practices are in successful use within an organisation, the most important of which are the use of project boards and formal project management techniques in their ICT projects and compliance with competitive procurement procedures.

In operating the delegation arrangements, Departments and offices are required to submit a broad value for money justification for each of their major ICT project proposals. This justification has to receive my Department's approval prior to any commencement. The delegation arrangements also require Departments and offices to report on an annual basis their progress in relation to projects in the previous year.

Health boards prior to 2005 operated as statutory agencies and their ICT expenditures were dealt with by capital and current grants-in-aid from the Vote of the Department of Health and Children. As a result, CMOD did not have any role in monitoring ICT expenditures in the former health boards and had no involvement in the planning or development of either the PPARS or FISP systems. It is, however, directly involved in the review of PPARS development which is currently under way.

As a result of the increasing size and complexity of ICT projects being undertaken in the context of e-government, it was felt that the delegation arrangements had to be strengthened, particularly for large ICT projects. As the Deputy will be aware the Government recently decided that peer reviews should be immediately put in place for large ICT projects. It is worth noting that forms of peer review are also being implemented in other administrations to deal with size and complexity issues in ICT. In a peer review a team of experienced people external to the organisation would sense check the project sponsors plans and the arrangements they intended to put in place for the completion of the project. Peer review teams would include people with relevant experience from both the public and private sector as appropriate. It is not intended that such reviews would override in any way the accountability arrangements in place within organisations. The peer review process will particularly focus on the preparation of good business cases, on affordability, on the existence of sufficiently detailed plans, on strong governance arrangements being in place and on limiting the scope of a proposed project to the current ICT capacity of the sponsoring organisation.

It is intended that progress will be made before the end of 2005 in relation to having peer reviews carried out on some large scale projects. In the HSE it is intended to carry out reviews of PPARS, FISP and the planned new hospital information system.

I should emphasise that the peer review mechanism is a significant strengthening of the delegation arrangements as they apply to ICT expenditures. It allows responsibility for the delivery of ICT services to continue to rest with each organisation, while increasing the level of oversight for significant project proposals. The Deputy will be aware of a recent Government decision which significantly strengthens controls in the area of project management and the peer review process will check that these new controls have been taken fully into account. My Department will also be monitoring the development of this new process to ensure its continuing efficacy.