1. Introduction
2. Apologies
3. Minutes of Meeting of 13^th June 2002
4. Briefing by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Dowdall
5. Clearance of PAC Draft Report and Press Release on Indicators of Educational Performance and Provision"
6. Events Company Report
7. NITB: Breakaways Contract

Members Present:
Mr B Bell (Chairman)
Ms Armitage
Mr Beggs
Mr Carrick
Mr Close
Mr Hilditch
Ms Morrice
Ms Ramsey

Apologies:
Mr Dallat
Mr McClelland
Mr O'Connor

In Attendance:
Mr M Rickard (Committee Clerk)
Mr J Campbell (Assistant Committee Clerk)
Ms C Campbell
Ms J Dickson

The Chairman commenced proceedings by welcoming Mr John Dowdall, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) and his staff to the meeting.

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

Apologies were received from Mr Dallat, Mr McClelland and Mr O'Connor.

The minutes accurately represented the business of the Committee.

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 (Assistant Auditor General) gave a presentation, which detailed the main issues in the Reports. Following the presentation he addressed a number of queries raised by the members.

Mr John Dowdall, Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) was further examined

Draft Report (Indicators of Educational Performance and Provision) proposed by the Chairman, brought up and read.

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

Paras 1 to 3 read and agreed to
Paras 4 to 5.14 postponed
Paras 6 to 15 read and agreed to
Para 16 read and agreed subject to amendment
Paras 17 to 22 read and agreed to
Paras 4 to 5.14 read and agreed subject to changes to be made to reflect amendments agreed in paras 6 to 22.

The press release should be issued in the form submitted, subject to amendments in keeping with the report.

Mr Carrick and Mr Hilditch declared an interest.

The C&AG informed the committee that although the report had not been laid formally in the Assembly, it had Assembly Privilege as a document laid before the Committee.

A copy of the report should be laid in the Assembly library in order to ensure access for all MLAs.

Following the C&AG's introduction, Mr Barry Edgar (NIAO Director of VFM) gave a presentation, detailing the main issues from the Report. He then addressed a number of queries raised by the Committee.

The Committee will write to the Events Company seeking further information.

The C&AG gave a brief outline of the papers submitted to the Committee relating to the Breakaways contract.

Members discussed and amended the contents of a draft letter to be issued to the Accounting Officer.

The amended letter should be issued to the Accounting Officer.

The Chairman read the draft letter and outlined a number of issues that the Committee wanted to address.

The draft letter should be issued to the Accounting Officer.

The meeting was drawn to a close at 12.30pm.