John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 236: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the number of projects of €300,000, or greater, that were funded by Irish Aid in each of the years 2005, 2006 and 2007; the number of those projects that were audited; when Irish Aid will have all projects of over €300,000 audited, as recommended by the INTRAC report; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15219/08]

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I understand that the Deputy is referring to the INTRAC Value for Money Report on Irish Aid support provided from the Emergency Humanitarian Assistance Fund to Tsunami Affected Countries. The conclusion of that report was that "Irish Aid made a prompt and appropriate response, and, overall, managed its programme of support in an efficient and effective way. The programme of response has been competently monitored and no cases were found of any funds being wasted." The Report made a series of 12 recommendations, one of which was "Irish Aid should request external evaluations of all programmes to which it is contributing and make all grants of €300,000 and above conditional on such an overall and external programme evaluation being undertaken and submitted." In its management response, Irish Aid "concurred with the principle of this recommendation" which it described as "consistent with the commitments of Irish Aid to evaluation and financial accountability".

In practice, the vast majority of Irish Aid funding from the Emergency Fund is provided through UN Agencies like the World Food Programme (WFP), UNICEF and the Red Cross. In 2007 such funding accounted for 92% of the Emergency Fund. All of these agencies conform with the principle of the recommendation in the INTRAC Report in that they have their own robust auditing and evaluation procedures in place for all their donors, including Irish Aid. It is therefore unnecessary, and indeed would involve wasteful duplication, and would be in breach of the principles of Good Humanitarian Donorship (GHD), for a single donor like Irish Aid to commission separate additional audits in respect of each of its funding grants made to these agencies.

The balance of Irish Aid funding from Emergency Fund is provided through our NGO partners. All emergency related funding proposals submitted by our NGO partners are comprehensively appraised. Under the terms of the contracts agreed with the NGO partners, each NGO is obliged to provide externally audited accounts in addition to regular financial statements on spending. Furthermore, regular progress reports are provided by the organisation. In accordance with the audit requirements for the funding of these projects and programmes, Irish Aid receives audited accounts from the NGOs concerned thus providing the necessary audit assurance that feeds into Irish Aid's overall accountability framework.

In response to that specific recommendation to which the Deputy refers, all contracts governing Irish Aid's humanitarian funding to its NGO partners will include, regardless of value, clauses defining evaluation requirements and stating the right of Irish Aid to commission an independent evaluation of the project or programme. Specific evaluations will take into account the value and nature of the activities that were funded. These evaluation clauses are in addition to the very specific audit requirements that have always been a standard component of Irish Aid's funding agreements. In addition, an evaluation officer has been deployed within its own Emergency and Recovery Section tasked with the responsibility of devising a rolling programme of evaluations designed to assess the impact and the outcome of programmes, to ensure value for money, and to draw upon lessons learnt which can improve our humanitarian response in the future.

Listed in an annex, are the number and value of programmes from the Emergency Fund in excess of €300,000 awarded to our NGO partners in the years 2005-2007. All Irish Aid funding, including projects, programmes, sectors and geographic location, is detailed comprehensively in the Irish Aid Annual Reports.

Annex

The number of grants in excess of €300,000 provided to them in each of the years is as follows:

John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 237: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the steps he has taken to co-operate with other donor countries in order to avoid duplication when auditing Irish Aid spending; if it is planned that Ireland will join the Harmonisation in Overseas Audit Practices group; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15220/08]

Michael Kitt (Galway East, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Ireland signed up to the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness of March 2005, which, inter alia, agreed to "eliminate duplication of efforts and rationalise donor activities to make them as cost effective as possible." In line with this commitment, Irish Aid's programme funding agreements now provide authorisation for the commissioning of joint audit work with other donors in areas of developmental activity which are jointly funded. Where joint arrangements do not exist, such as, for example, where Irish Aid is the only funder of a particular activity, work can be commissioned solely by Irish Aid. It should be noted that in most of Irish Aid's major bilateral programmes, a significant proportion of programme expenditure is the subject of joint audit work.

The issue of membership of the Harmonisation in Overseas Audit Practices group — a grouping of the external auditors (Supreme Audit Institutions) of the countries providing overseas aid — is a matter for the Comptroller and Auditor General's Office. Irish Aid, following communications with the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, can confirm that Ireland has not yet become a member, but that the Office is in contact with the group and receives updates and communications on the group's work.