Secretary General of Department of Public Expenditure & Reform to appear before PAC

The Appropriation Accounts for 2011 of the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (DPER) are on the agenda as well as the accounts of Vote 7, Superannuation and Retired Allowance, for which Mr Watt is the Accounting Officer. The Committee will also focus on three Chapters from the 2011 C&AG Annual Report - Chapter 6, PPPs Chapter 12, Vote Accounting Chapter 13, Procurement without a Competitive Process.

Committee Chairman John McGuinness TD said: “In relation to the Department itself, the Department of Finance was split into the Department of Finance and Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in July 2011. Two years on, we will want an update on how well this split is working. We will want to ascertain what DPER is able to do better as a result of operating as a separate Department and if any further restructuring is foreseen. Committee members will be keen to establish what changes have been made to improve the oversight of Departmental spending and if the Department currently possesses the skill set it requires to carry out its functions.

“The Department has responsibility for PPP policy and how the relevant funds available are allocated across each area of Government spending. The Committee will be keen to establish if the constraint of lack of available finance has now been resolved to some extent by the Government’s stimulus package and if it is sufficient to restart the PPP market. Other issues we may deal with are efforts by the Department to deal with the lack of active international contractors in the Irish market and how can high bid costs be tackled.

“Chapter 13 focuses on the exceptions to public procurement rules, which are allowed in limited circumstances and the extent to which they arise. The C&AG stated in his conclusions that there continues to be substantial levels of procurement by Government Department and offices without the use of competitive processes. We will want to know if this is still the case and what the Department plans on doing to improve the situation.”

This meeting will take place in Committee Room 1 at 10am tomorrow, Thursday, 3rd October 2013.

Committee proceedings can be followed live here. 

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Ciaran Brennan,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Communications Unit,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2

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Committee of Public Accounts Membership
 
John McGuinness (Chairman)
Kieran O’Donnell (Vice Chairman)
Paul J Connaughton,
John Deasy,
Paschal Donohoe,
Gerald Nash,
Simon Harris,
Michael McCarthy,
Mary Lou McDonald,
Sean Fleming,
Eoghan Murphy,
Derek Nolan,
Shane Ross