Public Accounts Committee

Legacy Report of the Public Accounts Committee 2007 – 2011

Remit and Powers

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is a Standing Committee established in accordance with Section 60(3) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and under Assembly Standing Order 56.

“to consider accounts, and reports on accounts laid before the Assembly”.

The Committee has the power to:

• consider accounts and reports on accounts laid before the Assembly
• call for persons and papers;
• initiate inquiries and issue reports.

The PAC Process

The Committee’s work focuses primarily on the consideration of reports produced by the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) and his organisation, the Northern Ireland Audit Office.  These can be annual financial reports on public accounts or reports on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of public spending. 

The Committee selects and examines Audit Office reports that are material to its remit, and can assist in developing lessons to improve accountability and financial governance mechanisms in the public sector.

It calls the Accounting Officers responsible for expenditure examined in each report to give oral evidence.  Members scrutinise the report and the evidence, and produce recommendations for improved financial systems and controls in a Committee report. 

The Treasury Officer of Accounts (TOA) attends all evidence sessions on behalf of the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP), answering Members’ questions and supporting Accounting Officers.

Through the Minister for Finance and Personnel, the Executive member with central authority for financial matters, the relevant Department responds to the Committee’s recommendations two months after publication of the report.  This is called a memorandum of reply.  The TOA co-ordinates this response and promotes good practice across Departments.

Membership

The Committee has 11 members, including a Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson, with a quorum of 5 members.

The membership of the Committee since 9 May 2007 has been as follows :

Key outputs/achievements

Since May 2007, the Public Accounts Committee has produced 56 reports.

Composite reports:

The Committee has inquired from time to time by correspondence into matters which are significant but do not require an oral evidence session. In these instances it has reported in the form of a composite report based on correspondence. In total it has completed four composite reports.

Value for Money/Efficiency and Effectiveness Reports

The bulk of the Committee’s work is its inquiries into case studies into value for money and or efficiency and effectiveness of public spending. The C&AG’s case study reports demonstrate audit findings and the Committee then assesses the impact of these before prioritising them for its forward work plan.

In the 2007-2011 Assembly mandate the Committee has examined practice in all Government departments, reporting on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs); large capital and reform projects; procurement of IT and other systems and services; inward investment; fraud; and the use of consultants.

The Committee took a strategic approach to its work, prioritising the inquiries it chose to conduct according to the significance of spending decisions, the impact and wide application of lessons learned on the public sector as a whole, the need to represent the work of all Departments in the scrutiny material of the Committee, and the benefit its inquiries could accrue for the taxpayer.

The Committee reiterated in its recommendations the need for

• clearly defined responsibilities and accountability lines for spending decisions
• good guidance that is regularly refreshed and actively circulated
• adherence to control processes even when time and other pressures militate against it
• regard to expert advice in tendering and specification to balance public/private sector risk
• high ethical standards, with particular regard to conflicts of interest, so that public spending can be seen to be beyond reproach

The Committee pursued several administrative matters which recurred in its inquiries as an obstacle to accountability and value for money, namely

• slow adjustment in public services to the opportunities for information sharing afforded by the Freedom of Information Act
• lack of uniform document retention policies across the public service and poor audit trails
• lack of oversight of arm’s-length bodies
• neglect of basic authorisation, separation of duty and supervisory functions

End-of-Year reports:

The Chairperson’s Liaison Group, which comprises all Committee Chairpersons, agreed in 2008 to compile Committee achievements in a uniform format. In response to this, the Committee has agreed two end-of-year reports and one end-of-session report to cover the periods of 2008-09; 2009-2010; and 2010-11 up until dissolution of the Assembly on 24 March 2011.

These reports summarise the inquiries of the Committee, the issues addressed and in terms of impact, the Government’s response to the Committee’s recommendations. They also contain statistics on the number of meetings and reports and Committee spending on visits, publications, refreshments and hospitality.

Approaches/changes in approach

The Committee took its work to the floor of the Assembly in an annual take-note debate in 2007, 2008 and 2009. In 2009 it agreed to report more often to the House and since then has had a Committee debate twice a year.

The Committee conducted most of its business in Parliament Buildings but conducted two evidence sessions off site. It also made one interparliamentary visit as part of its inquiry into North/South Bodies.

The Committee decided in 2008-09 to engage with parliamentary practice elsewhere and subsequently made comparative trips to Public Accounts Committees in Westminster, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales.

The Committee examined different approaches to the business of parliamentary scrutiny of public spending in these jurisdictions. The Committee accepted that current practice here derives for the most part from Westminster practice and convention. However, the Committee also viewed models of working in the devolved legislatures which applied varied roles to the functions of the Committee, its Secretariat team and its impartial partner in the Audit Office.

The Committee subsequently reviewed its practice and decided to

• continue to have regard to best practice in other jurisdictions;
• consider fewer reports in greater detail;
• make fewer and very focused recommendations;
• consider successive drafts of its reports and recommendations;
• consider taking evidence from stakeholders other than departmental officers on a case-by-case basis;
• channel its recommendations into user-friendly thematic reports;
• and review its practices again in due course.

Suggested priorities for incoming Committee

During its consideration of the Committee’s Excess Votes Report 2009-2010, the Committee recommended that the incoming Public Accounts Committee examine in further detail the financial management arrangements in DARD.

During its consideration of the MOR on ‘the Administration and Management of the Disability Living Allowance Reconsideration and Appeals Process’ the Committee decided that this was a significant MOR and signalled that it would advise the next Committee to revisit its contents in due course.

The Committee referred correspondence from the Committee for Culture, Arts and Leisure relating to the Odyssey Trust Group to the Comptroller and Auditor General. The Committee recommends that the incoming Public Accounts Committee consider his findings on this matter.

The changes to membership which occurred throughout the mandate are included at Appendix 1.

Appendix 1

1 With effect from 04 March 2008 Mr Thomas Burns replaced Mr Patsy McGlone.
2 With effect from 20 May 2008 Mr Paul Maskey replaced Mr John O'Dowd.
3 With effect from 1 October 2007 Mr Mickey Brady replaced Mr Willie Clarke.
4 With effect from 21 January 2008 Mr Ian McCrea replaced Mr Mickey Brady.
5 With effect from Tuesday 27 May 08 Mr Jim Wells replaced Mr Ian McCrea.
6 With effect from 15 September 2008 Mr George Robinson replaced Mr Simon Hamilton.
7 With effect from 15 September 2008 Mr Jim Shannon replaced Mr David Hilditch.
8 With effect from 29 June 2009 Mr Patsy McGlone replaced Mr Thomas Burns.
9 With effect from 18 September 2009 Rt Hon Jeffrey Donaldson replaced Mr Jim Wells.
10 With effect from 18 September 2009 Mr David Hilditch replaced Mr George Robinson.
11 On 19 April 2010 The Lord Browne replaced Rt Hon Jeffrey Donaldson.
12 On 19 April 2010 Mr Stephen Moutray replaced Mr Jonathan Craig.
13 With effect from 1st August 2010 Mr Jim Shannon (DUP) resigned from the Public Accounts Committee.
14 With effect from 13 September 2010 Mr William Irwin replaced Mr David Hilditch.
15 With effect from 13 September 2010 Mr Adrian McQuillan replaced The Lord Browne.
16 With effect from 13 September 2010 Mr Gregory Campbell was appointed a member of the Committee.

Appendix two

Public Accounts Committee

Committee meetings & visits

Statutory Rules

Committee Inquiries

Debates in Plenary

Committee Reports (excluding Bill and Inquiry reports)

Witnesses