Response on Departmental Bids for 2002/03 Financial Year and other Financial Matters

This is a preliminary response from the Committee for Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment. The Committee intends to reconsider the bids following further research and receipt of additional information from the Department. The response is made subject to the understanding that there will be another opportunity for the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment to make bids for Executive Programme Funds in the autumn.

The Committee has considered and debated the bids submitted by the Department for 2002/03 following evidence taken from officials on 21st and 28th June 2001. The Committee's response is set out below.

1. Whilst the Committee welcomed the evidence provided, members expressed their frustration in respect of the late arrival of the information and the absence of any details of the proposed bids until immediately before the Minister's statement in the Assembly on Tuesday 19 June 2001. Full and early consultation will be expected in future years.

2. The Committee supports the areas of work in respect of the bids in the 2001/02 July monitoring round and the budget bids 2002/03 (Annex A) and their link to the Programme for Government and the Public Service Agreements. The Committee welcomes the additional monies for the provision of facilities for Disabled People in both FE and HE along with the Child Care Subsidy for New Deal Lone Parents in the additional allocation in the June monitoring round. The former will assist in achieving the targets in the Public Service Agreements. However, members are somewhat surprised that the only easement set out in the combined bids is as a result of a change of plans, combined with a delay in expenditure due to the Public Private Partnerships/Public Finance Initiative proposals on the Springvale Campus.

3. The Committee supports the principle of the establishment of a unit to examine staffing matters in the Department. However, the Committee will be seeking more detail on its remit, cost/benefit and why this could not have been financed out of existing Departmental Running Costs (DRC). However, we must emphasise that this unit must not replace the general requirement for management throughout the Department to seek reductions in staff costs through improvements in efficiency and effectiveness. Scarce resources need to be released for redeployment and thus drive up outputs for the benefit of our citizens and the Northern Ireland economy. Furthermore, we would encourage the Committee for Finance and Personnel to examine the potential scope for greater emphasis on the Efficiency Agenda: Improving Public Sector Productivity as set out in the Executive's Position Report, June 2001. Unless there is a rigorous cross- departmental approach taken to securing efficiency gains, the room for manoeuvre available to the Executive in the future will be seriously curtailed.

4. The Needs and Effectiveness Evaluations into Training and Vocational Education Needs announced by the Minister of Finance and Personnel in his statement to the Assembly on 19 June 2001 is supported by the Committee. We would like further details of this work, in particular how will an external evaluation of the effectiveness be ensured?

5. The Committee will wish to further scrutinise the Department's budget to clearly identify the allocation of additional funding from 2000/01 to 2001/02 and the further increase in 2002-03. After scrutiny of the outcome of the Annual Business Plan for 2000-01, the draft three year Strategic Plan for 2001-04 and the Business Plan for 2001-02 the Committee is concerned that there is insufficient attention being paid to the value gained from the outputs and outcomes of the programmes. The continuation of the philosophy of asking for additional money with limited or no mention of tangible benefits appears to be all too apparent. This is contrary to that stated by the Minister of Finance and Personnel in his statement of Tuesday 19 June 2001 " the current financial management system is to break old patterns and promote priorities". Thus the Committee will be seeking further information to assess the effectiveness, efficiency and economy of the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment, and in particular how the considerable increases in recent years have been spent.

6. A further issue raised during our evidence session was the non-allocation of the three-year flexibility to individual departments by the Department of Finance and Personnel. Is this a case of still too much central control leading to less than optimum management of individual departmental budgets? This may be an issue the Committee for Finance and Personnel would wish to consider from the wider perspective.

7. The Committee considered the issues raised by the Minister of Finance and Personnel in his statement of 2 July 2001. Our view is that the allocation of additional monies must be dealt with in a planned manner relating back to the aims of the Programme for Government. The Committee suggests that consideration should be given to using at least a proportion of these monies to supplement the Executive Programme Funds. This would mean that approved cross-cutting bids would be enhanced and these specific outcomes could be achieved earlier. For example, the DHFETE bid for literacy and numeracy could receive additional funding and this money could be allocated earlier. This would enhance the Executive's aim of tackling poverty and social disadvantage through improving basic skills.

8. The Committee for Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment has considered the format of the Public Expenditure Plans: 2001/02 to 2003/04. In general the Committee is content with the overall format and layout of the document but would recommend that longer-term trends of individual departments' total expenditure may be useful in the future.

A more comprehensive response will be submitted in the early autumn period following further consideration of additional information.

Dr Esmond Birnie, MLA
Chairman

5th July 2001

ANNEX A

MONITORING AND BUDGET BIDS

Minutes of 21 June 2001, para 6
Minutes of 5 July 2001, para 3, action point 4