Committee Reports > List of Committees > Dáil > 1983 > Committee of Public Accounts > Interim and Final Report - Appropriation Accounts 1978 - 1979

APPENDIX 23

EXCESS OF CERTAIN EXPENDITURE—PUBLIC WORKS AND BUILDINGS.

18th January, 1983

Mr. L. P. Browne,

Clerk to the Committee of Public Accounts,

Leinster House,

Dublin 2.

A Chara,

In the course of my evidence before the Public Accounts Committee on 4th November, 1982, I undertook to supply a note in response to a query about the excess of certain actual expenditure under Subhead F.1 of Vote 9 over and above the amounts shown in the Book of Estimates.

The attached note provides the required information.

Mise, le meas

P. SCANLAN

Accounting Officer

Office of Public Works.

Vote 9—Public Works and Buildings

Subhead F.1.

The general explanation of the cause of the excess over the provision in the case of Subhead F1 is as stated in the Appropriation Account page 21. The incurring of an excess of this Subhead on the basis that the excess would be met from savings on other Subheads of the Vote (and within the total amount voted by the Dáil) was sanctioned by the Department of Finance (S60/1/78 dated 29 Feabhra, 1980).

Expenditure under Subhead F1 of Vote 9 covers the cost of maintaining the wide range of properties in this country and abroad under the care of the Commissioners of Public Works. The Commissioners have a responsibility to ensure that these properties are maintained to the degree necessary to meet legal and statutory obligations, to prevent serious deterioration of valuable assets and to ensure the safety and security of the occupants and members of the public using them.

Routine periodic maintenance work such as redecoration can be carried out on a planned basis but a large amount of the expenditure each year is incurred on unforeseen items which arise during that year and which, because of their nature, cannot be deferred. The amounts shown against the various Departments in the Book of Estimates are the best estimates that can be made at the outset of the year of the likely outturn of the expenditure but inevitably variation will occur. The probable consequences of failure to carry out essential works must be weighed against the desirability of keeping within detailed estimates of expenditure.

In the case of the two Departments specificlly mentioned in the query, the Departments of the Taoiseach and Finance, the following facts are worthy of mention:

The amounts shown under the Department of the Taoiseach cover not only that Department’s offices but also the Central Statistics Office and the State Apartments, Dublin Castle, and it was on the last-named premises that the bulk of the expenditure in 1979 was incurred — a significant amount of maintenance work being brought forward because of our E.E.C. Presidency in the second half of the year.

The amounts under the heading of the Department of Finance cover expenditure on premises occupied by the Stationery Office, the State Laboratory, the Ordnance Survey Office, the Valuation Office, the Attorney General, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Paymaster General and the Civil Service Dining Club, in addition to the Department’s own offices.

In each case, the total expenditure was composed of a multitude of items ranging from a few pence to four thousand pounds or so.