Minutes of Proceedings of the second meeting
of the Public Accounts Committee
held in Room 152, Parliament Buildings
on Wednesday 11^th September 2002

1. Introduction
2. Apologies
3. Minutes of Meetings of 4^th July 2002, 8^th August 2002 and 5^th September 2002
4. Briefing by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Dowdall
5. Legal Representation at Public Expense
6. Paper from C&AG on the Protocol for handling Committee documents
7. Review of Benelux
8. Draft Letters to be approved
9. Briefing of Northern Ireland Tourist Board Report by Mr M Rickard

Members Present: Mr B Bell (Chairman)
Mr Murphy
Ms Armitage
Mr Beggs
Mr Carrick
Mr Close
Mr Hilditch
Mr McClelland
Mr O'Connor

Apologies: Mr Dallat
Ms Morrice

In Attendance: Mr P Carlisle (Committee Clerk)
Mr J Campbell (Assistant Committee Clerk)
Mr J Dowdall (C&AG)
Mr R Jones (Assistant Auditor General)
Mr B Edgar (NIAO)
Mr T Woodhouse (NIAO)
Ms C Campbell
Ms J Dickson
Mr M Rickard

The Chairman commenced proceedings by welcoming Mr John Dowdall, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), and his staff. Following his introduction, he updated the Committee on the ongoing discussions concerning the movement of Committee Clerks. He informed members that he was still awaiting a ruling on the Committee motion, submitted to the Business Office following the meeting of 5^th September, concerning the transfer of Clerks. He also informed members that a meeting had been held on 9^th September between himself, the Deputy Chair, the Clerk of the Assembly and the Speaker. At that meeting, it was agreed that:

• the Speaker would deal with the issue of the Transfer of Clerks in the first meeting of the Assembly Commission on 17^th September;
• the Chairmen of DETI and PAC Committees would attend the Assembly Commission meeting to discuss the issue;
• the Speaker would propose to the Commission to postpone the movement of Committee Clerks until the Christmas Recess.

The Committee would take no further action on this issue until the Commission meeting on 17^th September.

The Chairman then turned to the order of business.

Apologies were received from Mr Dallat and Ms Morrice.

The minutes accurately represented the business of the Committee.

Following a brief introduction by the C&AG, Mr Edgar and Mr Woodhouse gave a presentation detailing the main issues to be dealt with in the forthcoming evidence session on Compensation Payments for Clinical Negligence.

Following the presentations, they addressed a number of queries raised by the members

Due to interest expressed by members in the issue of legal representation at public expense, the C&AG had produced a paper outlining procedures in place within the public sector. The C&AG addressed a number of queries raised by the members.

As agreed in the meeting of 4^th July, a draft protocol document was produced which was discussed by members.

The principals in the draft protocol should be adopted immediately.

A PAC document detailing the protocol for handling committee documents will be produced for the next meeting.

The C&AG had been asked at the meeting of 4^th July to prepare an informal briefing for members on the Benelux Project which had been funded by IDB.

A briefing will take place on Wednesday 18^th September at 11:30am

The following letters should be issued

Letter to Mr G McGinn re: Building Maintenance in the Education and Library Boards

Letter to Mr Pat Carvill, DFP, re: Safe Custody of Works of Art in Departmental ownership

The Committee was updated by Mr Rickard on the progress of the Committee Report on the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

Preliminary draft paragraphs will be circulated to members next week, following which feedback and suggestions will be sought.

The meeting was drawn to a close at 12:20pm.

5 September 2002 / Menu / 19 September 2002