1. Introduction
2. Apologies
3. Minutes from Meeting of 14 February 2001
4. Draft Report on Grants Paid to the Irish Sport Horse Genetic Testing Unit Ltd and National Agriculture Support: Fraud
5. Presentation by Mr. John Dowdall, Comptroller and Auditor General
6. How to Deal with the C&AG's Report Northern Ireland Appropriation Accounts 1999-2000
7. Any Other Business
8. Next Meeting

Present: Mr B Bell (Chairman)
Ms S Ramsey Mr R Beggs
Mr Mervyn Carrick
Mr S Close
Mr J Dallat
Mr D Hilditch
Mr D McClelland
Mr D O'Connor

Apologies Ms J Morrice
Ms P Armitage

In Attendance: Mr M Rickard (Committee Clerk)
Mr J Campbell (Assistant Committee Clerk)
Miss L Tracey

The Chairman commenced proceedings by welcoming Mr. Dowdall, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), his staff and the guests from the Audit Office in Bangladesh, Mr Amin and Mr Haque to the meeting. He then proceeded to outline the objectives of the meeting as:

1. To agree the draft minutes of the meetings of 14.02.01;
2. To agree the draft PAC Report on the Irish Sport Horse Genetic Testing Unit Ltd and National Agriculture Support: Fraud
3. To be briefed on the NIAO Reports on Structural Maintenance of Roads (NIA 15) and Management of On Street Parking (NIA 24/00).

Following this introduction, the Chairman turned to the order of business.

Apologies were received from Ms J Morrice and Ms P Armitage

The minutes were an accurate record of the previous meeting.

Following the issue of the draft report to all members, the Committee discussed its content

Mr John Dowdall, Comptroller and Auditor General, was further examined.

The Committee deliberated.

Draft Report (Grants Paid to the Irish Sport Horse Genetic Testing Unit Ltd and National Agriculture Support: Fraud), proposed by the Chairman, brought up and read.

Ordered, That the draft Report be read a second time, paragraph by paragraph

Introduction read and agreed to

Part I

Para 1 to 2 read and agreed to.

Para 3.1 to 3.21 postponed

Para 4 to 14 read and agreed to

Para 15 read and agreed subject to amendment

Para 16 read and agreed to

Para 17 read and agreed subject to amendment

Para 18 to 30 read and agreed to

Paras 3.1 to 3.21 read and agreed subject to changes to be made to reflect amendments agreed in paras 4-30

Part II

Para 1 to 4 read and agreed to.

Para 5.1 to 6.2 postponed

Para 7 to 39 read and agreed to

Para 40 read and agreed subject to amendment

Para 41 to 43 read and agreed to

Paras 5.1 to 6.2 read and agreed subject to changes to be made to reflect amendments agreed in paras 7-43.

The C&AG gave a brief outline on what he considered to be the main conclusions drawn from the Reports. Following the C&AG's introduction, Mr Jones and Ms Moyna gave presentations which detailed the main issues in the Reports. Following the presentation they addressed a number of queries raised by the members.

They also outlined the type of questions to be asked in order to draw out conclusions and recommendations for the subsequent PAC Report.

The Chairman reported that since the last meeting, he had received a letter from the Chairman of the DETI Committee enquiring how the Committee was going to deal with the issues concerning NITB Procurement Procedures, which had been raised in the C&AG's Report on the Appropriation Accounts 1999-2000. This opened up the wider issue of how the Committee should deal with all of the issues.

To write to both the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and T&EA concerning issues raised in the Report.

The discussion was then further widened to incorporate details within the accounts detailed in the report.

The Audit Office would provide details of all significant losses, recorded in the Losses Statements in the accounts. If further details were required by the Committee, it may be necessary to write to the relevant departments.

The Audit Office would identify those departments/accounts where estimating was considered to be poor. In these cases, the Committee will write to the relevant department in order to establish why such variances between expenditure and estimates had occurred.

Prior to the meeting, all members were provided with a copy of the Report from the C&AG.

Members should review the report and discuss the issues at a later date.

The C&AG was thanked for the prompt production of the report.

The Chairman reported that he had been contacted by the PAC in Dublin who have replied positively to the Committee's invitation to attend one of its sessions. Early indications were that it would be the session of 21/03/01. The Chairman agreed to keep members up to date with arrangements as they arise.

The next meeting is to held at 10.20am on Wednesday 21^st March 2001 in the Senate Chamber, Parliament Buildings. It will be a Public Evidence Session on the NIAO Reports on Structural Maintenance of Roads (NIA 15) and Management of On Street Parking (NIA 24/00)

The meeting was then drawn to a close at 12:45pm