The Department has a robust governance process in place to assure the proper control of projects and expenditure, which has ensured delivery in accordance with the approved budgets and agreed timeframes.
Aside from standard operating costs related to the day to day delivery of welfare and employment schemes and services the Department's capital development programmes fall into two categories - accommodation and facilities which are managed and accounted for by the Office of Public Works, and IT Systems and Development which are in the control of the Department itself.
With regard to the latter the Department plans, designs, builds and operates its own IT platforms and services using a mix of inhouse and contracted staff. All of this work is categorised into workstreams/programmes some of which relate to ongoing operations and production support and some of which relate to new development projects. All expenditure must undergo an assessment of need and receive the approval of the Department’s Project Governance Committee (PGC), which is chaired by the Secretary General.
Expenditure on IT operations and development projects is undertaken in accordance with the Public Spending Code and any modification to projects are reported to the Comptroller and Auditor General in the 40/02 annual return and in accordance with the EU Directives. Each project is assigned a Project Manager and a Project Board which reports regularly to a Programme Board. A project status report is provided by the Programme Board to the PGC which meet every six weeks. This governance process ensures there is a robust ongoing monitoring of projects and provides a mechanism for early identification of any issues that are emerging. Expenditure on IT operations and developments is subject to an annual budget allocation which is monitored throughout the year by the PGC with operations and development activity prioritised to fit within the budget envelope. This governance process has ensured that, in the past three years the Department has remained within the approved budget allocation provided by the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Services Reform and Digitalisation.
My Department also has mechanisms in place to ensure that projects commissioned or undertaken by agencies under the aegis of the Department are closely monitored in accordance with the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Sponsored Bodies and that expenditure remains within the budgets allocated via my Department.
I am satisfied that the governance processes in place provide close monitoring of all projects.
