Departmental funding is disbursed in line with the overall principle that there should be transparency and accountability in the management of public money having regard to economy, efficiency and effectiveness and in compliance with the central guidelines, as set out in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform's Circular number 13 of 2014.
The Department provides funding to a range of bodies, which differ in their relationships, roles and responsibilities to the Department, as well as their compliance obligations, reporting procedures and assurances arrangements, including some bodies whose primary oversight relationship is with other Government Departments.
Circular 13 of 2014 acknowledges that, given the diversity of bodies in receipt of public funding, a standardised service level agreement may not be appropriate in all cases and so provides that “content and the extent of the agreement [covering resources and outputs] is a matter for the Department having regard to the nature of the grant, and agreements will vary depending on the size and complexity of the Body’s operations.” In cases where there are multiple donors or where the donating Vote is not the supervisory authority, accounting may be “governed by global governance structures and other arrangements”, provided the Department is satisfied that there are appropriate monitoring and control arrangements in place.
More widely, the Department is undertaking significant efforts to further develop and implement robust and consistent governance arrangements across the education sector. The aim is to ensure that utilisation of public funds is achieved within a framework of high standards of performance, accountability, compliance and oversight.
A Management Board Committee on Sectoral Governance and Accountability, which is chaired by the Secretary General, was established in 2015. This committee provides overall guidance on the enhancement of governance arrangements across the education sector. It is supported by a Sectoral Governance unit which has been established in the Department which undertakes work to support the enhancement and standardisation of governance and accountability oversight across the Department. This has included rolling out of the first phase of a programme of governance compliance reviews involving the Department’s non-commercial bodies.
