Seymour Crawford
Ceist:19 Mr. Crawford asked the Minister for Finance his views on the proposal of an evaluation unit within his Department for independently evaluating capital projects as proposed by the ESRI. [18670/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraWednesday, 23 June 2004
Ceisteanna (39)
Freagraí scríofa
The key responsibility for the evaluation, planning and execution of capital projects rests with line Departments and the relevant implementing agencies. My Department has a strong concern to promote the pursuit of optimal value for money by Departments and has provided guidance to Departments in this regard. This guidance is set out in the the 1994 capital appraisal guidelines. My Department is drafting revised guidelines in the light of experience of the operation of the existing guidelines and of the implementation of infrastructure projects in recent years.
As regards the specific proposal to establish an evaluation unit in my Department, as I have advised previously, the national development plan-CSF evaluation unit is an independent evaluation unit under the aegis of my Department which is co-financed by the Exchequer and the EU and has responsibility under the direction of the technical assistance monitoring committee for evaluation of the NDP operational programmes and related issues. In this regard it has engaged in or overseen a number of evaluations since the commencement of the NDP, including the evaluation of investment in key capital programmes such as the road network and in public transport. The NDP-CSF evaluation unit has also been engaging with my Department in relation to the ongoing work on the revision of the capital appraisal guidelines.
My Department co-ordinates the expenditure review initiative, ERI, under which Departments conduct internal evaluations or reviews of their key expenditure programmes or policy areas on the basis of centrally agreed criteria. Final responsibility for conducting reviews, submitting them for external quality assessment, disseminating their findings and implementing their recommendations rests with each Department. My Department also provides the secretariat to the expenditure review central steering committee, ERCSC, a committee chaired by the Secretary General of my Department. The ERCSC supports the expenditure review process at a strategic level. This includes making recommendations on future reforms to the process.
The future scope for greater co-ordination between the NDP-CSF evaluation unit and the expenditure review process will be kept under review in the context of the implementation of the €33.6 billion, five-year rolling capital envelopes framework which I announced in the 2004 budget and the review of the capital appraisal guidelines.