For more than 100 years, the Committee of Public Accounts, more commonly referred to as PAC, has cast an impartial and forensic eye on how State money is spent.
The PAC is specifically concerned with "how" rather than "why" public money has been spent. The anticipatory effect of having to account for spending in front of the PAC helps to ensure correct financial procedures are followed.
The Committee calls the heads of Government Departments and offices, who are referred to as Accounting Officers, and the chief officers of other public bodies, who are the statutory "accountable persons", who must appear before it and answer questions about their management and use of public funds.