PAC inquiry resumes to hear progress reports

A prohibition on accountancy firms providing a range of services to companies they already audit is unlikely to be recommended by the Review Group on Auditing set up following the DIRT report of the Dail Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

It is understood the group is instead considering measures whereby the fees paid to accountancy firms for auditing and other services will have to be itemised in company reports given to shareholders. However, the provision of certain services by auditing companies may be prohibited.

The group, which will not have its report completed for today's resumed hearings of the PAC inquiry into DIRT, is also likely to recommend the ending of self-regulation by the accountancy profession. The report is likely to be completed by the end of this month.

Today's PAC inquiry hearing, the first since the inquiry adjourned in October 1999, will hear progress reports from various bodies whose workings came to the attention of the PAC during its inquiry into bogus non-resident accounts held in banks during the 1980s and 1990s.

Extra information on dormant bank accounts is to be sought from the Department of Finance in order to seize the money in them.

The department is also to be questioned about the lack of progress in bringing proposals for the establishment of a Single Financial Regulator to Cabinet. A report on this matter was finalised a year ago.

As well as the Department of Finance, progress reports are also to be sought from the Revenue Commissioners, the Central Bank and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. For the first time, trade union representatives are to be asked for their views on the Revenue Commissioners' operations and structures.

It is expected that trade unions representing Revenue staff will criticise policy during the 1990s in relation to corporate audits. In 1991, staff were instructed that "except where there are grounds for suspecting the integrity of the accountancy firm involved, little could be expected by attempting to reaudit the fully-certified accounts of most large corporations."

The committee will sit from 10 a.m., probably until late in the afternoon. The sitting will be televised live on TG4.

The committee will adjourn for two weeks the matter of the report by the Review Group on Auditing, chaired by Senator Joe O'Toole.

"I would consider this a very important issue. There was a huge deficit exposed in relation to auditing," Mr Jim Mitchell TD and PAC chairman said, referring to the committee's hearings last year. "This is not just about the banks. If the outcome is the one I think it is likely to be, then this will have a huge effect on Irish business." Mr Mitchell said the issue of auditing was at the heart of many of the scandals currently being investigated.

The PAC is looking for new legislation governing the operation of the Revenue Commissioners and the Office of the Appeal Commissioners. In relation to the latter, the committee is looking for changes in the way commissioners are appointed, as well as increased accountability and transparency.

"At the moment, they are appointed behind closed doors by ministers, and there is no vetting before or afterwards, and they report to nobody."

The Civil Service Commission is to be asked for a reason for the delay in appointing a parliamentary law officer. Such an appointment had been approved three years ago and the position advertised last February. The appointment was necessary to facilitate inquiries by government committees.