|
|
|
|
APPENDIX 2A.MINUTE OF THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE ON PARAGRAPH 81 OF THE FINAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF PUBLIC ACCOUNTS (ORDER OF DÁIL OF 1 DECEMBER 1970)Cléireach an Choiste, Coiste um Chuntais Phoiblí. I am directed by the Minister for Finance to refer to the recommendations on grants-in-aid in paragraph 81 of the Final Report of the Public Accounts Committee prepared pursuant to Order of the Dáil of 1 December 1970 regarding the grant-in-aid for Northern Ireland Relief and to offer the following observations: General. A grant-in-aid differs from other grants provided by the Oireachtas in that any unexpended balance of the sums issued from it is not liable to surrender and that, provided the Dáil has been so informed, expenditures of sums issued from a grant-in-aid may be exempted from the scrutiny of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The Minister considers that the grant-in-aid procedure should not be used unnecessarily. He agrees that expenditure from issues from grants-in-aid should not be exempted from scrutiny by the C & A G without sufficient reason but he considers that, given the diversity of grants-in-aid, it is necessary to provide for the possibility of granting this exemption in appropriate cases. Recommendation 1. It is only in exceptional circumstances that issues are made from public funds, whether by way of grant-in-aid or otherwise, in advance of Dáil approval. The Minister considers that it would not be desirable to prohibit entirely the incurring of expenditure in advance of Dáil approval. For example, it is conceivable that a situation might arise where an expenditure, possibly by way of grant-in-aid, is required urgently while the Dáil is in recess. Recommendation 2. It is standard practice that where a vote specified that a grant-in-aid is for a particular person or body, it is issued only to that person or body. Confidential circular 2/72 further provides that where issues from a single grant-in-aid to a number of payees are involved, the grant-in-aid may be made payable in the first instance to a named account administered by the Department concerned. Details of the account must be appended in due course to the relevant Appropriation Account. Recommendation 3. The instructions conveyed in Confidential Circular No. 2/72 go further than this recommendation in obliging an Accounting Officer, among other things, to satisfy himself that the accounting system and organisational arrangements of a grantee are adequate to ensure the proper administration of the money. It is proposed, however, to expand the instructions in that Circular by incorporating the Committee’s recommendations. Recommendation 4. The Comptroller and Auditor General is in fact empowered at present to examine the accounts of the issues from all grants-in-aid. Examination of accounts of payees is covered by Recommendation 5 and the observations thereon, in the following paragraph, and by the paragraph headed General above. Recommendation 5. This is the existing position, except that the “statement to the contrary” normally takes the form of a reference to a general note in the opening pages of the Book of Estimates. The Minister accepts the Committee’s recommendation. While the Minister is satisfied generally as regards the adequacy of the arrangements now in operation, and proposed above, for safeguarding public funds involving payments by way of grant-in-aid, he may impose additional conditions in any particular case where he considers that these are warranted. C. H. MURRAY, An Roinn Airgeadais. 24 May 1973. |
||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
