Minutes of Proceedings of the nineteenth meeting of the Public Accounts Committee held in Room 152, Parliament Buildings on Wednesday 22nd May 2002

Members Present:
Mr B Bell (Chairman)
Mr Carrick
Mr Close
Mr Dallat
Mr Hilditch
Mr McClellant
Ms Ramsey
Ms Morrice

Apologies:
Mr Beggs
Ms Armitage

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

  • Introduction

The Chairman commenced proceedings by welcoming Mr John Dowdall, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG). He then proceeded to outline the main issues to be dealt with during the meeting.

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

  • Apologies

An apology was received from Mr Beggs and Ms Armitage.

  • Minutes of Meeting of 17th April 2002

Agreed.

The minutes accurately represented the business of the Committee.

  • Briefing by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr John Dowdall, and his tem on the NIAO Reports on Northern Ireland Tourist Board: Grant to the Malone Lodge Hotel (NIA 83/01), Northern Ireland Tourist Board Accounts 2000-01 (NIA 45/01) and extracts from the Northern Ireland Appropriation Accounts 1999-2000 and the PAC Composite Report on Issues Dealt with by Correspondence by the Committee

Following a brief introduction by the C&AG, Mr Hutcheson and Mr Donnelly gave presentations detailing the main issues to be dealt with in the forthcoming evidence session on the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

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

  • General Correspondence

Response from Department for Social Development re: C&AG's report on Vote C 2000-01

Agreed

The C&AG will review the response and report back to the Committee.

  • Any Other Business

PAC Visits

Agreed

The visit to Scotland should be postponed.

Agreed

The Clerk should liaise with the National Assembly of Wales with a view to visiting the Audit Committee on 19th June.

The meeting was then drawn to a close at 12:40pm.

B Bell
Committee Chairman
13th June 2002