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Public Accounts Committee - Approved Committee Minutes - 22 February 2013

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Public Accounts Committee

Record of Meeting

Date:   22nd February 2013

Meeting No:  23

 

Present

Deputy T. Vallois, Chairman Senator S. C. Ferguson, Deputy R. Rondel

Deputy G. Baudains

Mr J Mills

Apologies

Mr I. Ridgway

In attendance

Mr M. Robbins, Officer to Public Accounts Committee

 

Ref Back

Agenda matter

Action

Item 8 04.02.13

1.  Grants and Subsidies Review

The  Committee  welcomed  the  Director  of  Enterprise  and  Business Development,  the  Strategic  Policy  Manager,  the  Management Accountant Officer and the Departmental Scrutiny Liaison Officer from the Economic Development Department to a private briefing to explain how the system of grants worked. The Chief Officer from Economic Development joined the meeting later.

The Committee received a folder containing documentary information outlining the different grant systems used by the Department.

 

Item 1 11.02.13

2.  Canbedone Productions Limited Grant

The Committee discussed an anonymous letter received in relation to Canbedone. The Committee recalled the Code of Practice for Scrutiny Panels and the Public Accounts Committee which stated:

"9.16: Anonymous Submissions will not be considered."

Whilst  the  information  within  the  letter  was  compelling,  the

Committee noted the advice of the officer to follow the Code of Practice. It recognised that it had met its terms of reference and whilst the enquiries suggested within the document may offer corroboration, the lines of enquiry suggested added nothing new.

It was not agreed that this may be suitable to forward to the Comptroller and Auditor General as a whistleblowing matter and that individual Departmental Officers offering Scrutiny information had guidelines previously agreed between the Scrutiny function and the Council of Ministers. The letter may have come from outside the States organisation.

 

 

It was accepted that the report needed to be published as soon as  possible.  The  area  of  an  application  to  the  Tourism Development Fund had been the subject of a question on the question  plan  for  the  public  hearing  with  the  Economic Development Department Officers, which had been overlooked during the hearing. It would be appropriate to consider that area.

The  officer  was  to  write  to  the  Chairman  of  the  Tourism Development Fund and establish if there had been any approach to the fund by or on behalf of Canbedone. If so, copies of the minutes or notes were to be obtained.

MR