Minutes of Proceedings of the twenty fifth meeting of the Public Accounts Committee held in Room 135, Parliament Buildings on Thursday 4th July 2002

Members Present:
Mr B Bell (Chairman)
Ms Armitage
Mr Beggs
Mr Carrick
Mr Close
Mr Dallat
Mr Hilditch
Mr Murphy

Apologies:
Mr McClelland
Ms Morrice
Mr O'Connor

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

1. Introduction

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

He also welcomed Mr Conor Murphy, as both a new member and Deputy Chair, to the Committee. In doing so, he paid tribute to his predecessor, Ms Sue Ramsey, for the contribution which she had made towards the successful operation of the Committee.

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

2. Apologies

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

3. Minutes of Meeting of 19th and 26th June 2002

Agreed.

The minutes accurately represented the business of the Committee.

4. Forward Work Programme

Mr John Dowdall, Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) was invited to give a brief résumé on each of the NIAO Reports which have been published but not yet dealt with by the committee, and those to be published in the next Session.

Mrs Armitage asked about the Benelux Study. The C&AG said that he intended to take this up at the publication programme. He explained that the report is a case study of an IDB Inward Investment project which failed and closed in Limavady in 1996. The Office had been working on it for over six years but it has not been a priority and now, with the disappearance of IDB, it is a bit dated. This illustrated the fact that not all of NIAO's studies always reached a successful conclusion. However the study contains some useful lessons on the appraisal of projects and represents an investment of well over £80,000 of staff time. It would be important to try to ensure some return for this. He would therefore be presenting it to the new Invest In Northern Ireland as a study from which they can learn lessons and they could expect NIAO to return to its recommendations and use them as a benchmark for further work on industrial development cases.

An unpublished study would not be available for a future PAC session. However, both Mrs Armitage and Mr Close expressed interest in the topic and asked if the committee could be briefed on the main findings. The C&AG agreed to do this.

Agreed

The Benelux Report will be submitted as a study to Invest in Northern Ireland.

Agreed

Given members interests, the C&AG will provide a briefing on the main findings of the Report.

Agreed

The Forward Work Programme for the Committee will be as follows:

September 2002 DHSSPS Clinical Negligence

October 2002 Homelessness

November 2002 Sheep Annual Premium Scheme

The programme was agreed subject to developments in the "Into the West" project, where serious concerns have been highlighted in the local and national press.

5. Committee Correspondence re: Northern Ireland Tourist Board (NITB)

The Chairman drew members' attention to DETI's response to Committee correspondence of 19/06/02 on the NITB Breakaways Brochure. He informed members that, following the response, the Committee was now in a position to commence the drafting of the NITB report. He added that he hoped that following the departmental response to the Committee correspondence of 26/06/02, the Committee would be able to complete the report over the summer recess.

6. Handling Committee Documents

It was proposed that the Committee should consider establishing guidance on the handling of Committee documents.

Agreed

The Clerk will draft guidance over the Summer Recess.

7. Committee Correspondence

Agreed

The Clerk will issue the following correspondence:

• Letter to Mr Alan Shannon, Accounting Officer of the Department of Employment and Learning, concerning the Control of Funding from the Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation and from European Social Fund Initiatives
• Letter to Mr Pat Carvill, Accounting Officer of the Department of Finance and Personnel, concerning the Control of Funding from the Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation and from European Social Fund Initiatives
• A letter to John Walker, Chief Executive of the NI Events Company, in response to his letter of 25th June where he expressed objections to the newspaper reports on the Eagles concert.
• A letter to Peter Small, Accounting Officer of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development seeking an update on the Irish Sport Horse Ltd following the Department's consultation exercise which had commenced in January 2002.

8. Closure of Meeting

The Chairman thanked Mr Dowdall and his staff for the exceptional work which they had carried out on behalf of the Committee. He also thanked members for their constructive approach and their hard work throughout the session.

The meeting was drawn to a close at 2:15pm.

B Bell
Committee Chairman
2002