Governance Issues in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment's Former Local Enterprise Development Unit in Relation to the Establishment and Oversight of the Emerging Business Trust Loan and Venture Funds PDF Download
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Author: Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0102939659
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 64
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Book Description
This report examines major weaknesses in the part played by the former Local Enterprise Development Unit (LEDU) in the establishment and oversight of the Emerging Business Trust (EBT). The ETB was created in 1996 with funds of £3 million provided by the International Fund for Ireland and £0.75 million by LEDU, mainly administering a loan fund. In 2000 EBT also established a venture fund, with a total funding of £0.6 million. EBT voluntarily ceased to carry on business in April 2005, and a liquidator was appointed to wind up the affairs of both the loan and venture funds. Invest Northern Ireland (a development agency which assumed the responsibilities of LEDU in 2002) carried out an investigation, which identified a long list of failings: conflicts of interest, especially involving a LEDU board member who was also a partner in MTF Chartered Accountants who were the managing agents of both funds; LEDU's failure to follow its own procedures; normal public sector rules on competitive tendering were not followed; a high level of bad debt (£1.1 million was written off); insufficient monitoring by LEDU. NIAO finds that many of these failings show non-observance of the Public Accounts Committee's recommendations in its report "The proper conduct of public business" (HC 154, 8th report session 1993-94). The poor standards of administration fell far below the normal standards operating elsewhere in the Northern Ireland public sector. Invest Northern Ireland and the Department have undertaken a number of actions and current corporate governance arrangements are very different. NIAO believes there are lessons of relevance here to the wider public sector.
Author: Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Audit Office
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0102939659
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 64
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Book Description
This report examines major weaknesses in the part played by the former Local Enterprise Development Unit (LEDU) in the establishment and oversight of the Emerging Business Trust (EBT). The ETB was created in 1996 with funds of £3 million provided by the International Fund for Ireland and £0.75 million by LEDU, mainly administering a loan fund. In 2000 EBT also established a venture fund, with a total funding of £0.6 million. EBT voluntarily ceased to carry on business in April 2005, and a liquidator was appointed to wind up the affairs of both the loan and venture funds. Invest Northern Ireland (a development agency which assumed the responsibilities of LEDU in 2002) carried out an investigation, which identified a long list of failings: conflicts of interest, especially involving a LEDU board member who was also a partner in MTF Chartered Accountants who were the managing agents of both funds; LEDU's failure to follow its own procedures; normal public sector rules on competitive tendering were not followed; a high level of bad debt (£1.1 million was written off); insufficient monitoring by LEDU. NIAO finds that many of these failings show non-observance of the Public Accounts Committee's recommendations in its report "The proper conduct of public business" (HC 154, 8th report session 1993-94). The poor standards of administration fell far below the normal standards operating elsewhere in the Northern Ireland public sector. Invest Northern Ireland and the Department have undertaken a number of actions and current corporate governance arrangements are very different. NIAO believes there are lessons of relevance here to the wider public sector.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215028877
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 37
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Book Description
This is one of the worst cases of conflict of interest and impropriety that the Committee has seen. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment failed to ensure that the basic principles of the proper conduct of public business were observed. LEDU was an NDPB of the Department and was Northern Ireland's small business agency. The Emerging Business Trust (EBT) was set up in 1996 to provide loans and equity finance for small businesses. It received £4.35 million of public funds, including £0.95 million from LEDU. EBT went into voluntary liquidation in 2005. A forensic investigation into EBT's activities, commissioned by Invest Northern Ireland in 2003, revealed extensive failures of governance, particularly relating to conflicts of interest. In grant-aiding EBT, LEDU contributed to the formation of an organisation that substantially benefited the Deputy Chair of its own Board, Mrs Teresa Townsley. The accountancy practice in which Mrs Townsley and her husband were the only partners was appointed, without proper tendering, as managers of EBT, receiving £1.4 million in fees between 1997 and 2005. Mrs Townsley was also appointed to the Board of EBT. There were also extensive conflicting relationships between Mrs Townsley, her husband and a number of companies supported by EBT. LEDU provided no guidance on how potential conflicts of interest involving EBT's managers and its clients should be handled. At almost every stage of the project, there was a dismal failure within LEDU to apply normal controls and procedures over purchasing, project appraisal and monitoring. The Department knew of the conflicts of interest inherent in the multiplicity of roles involving Mrs Townsley but took no action.
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215029164
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 48
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Book Description
The prison population in England and Wales has been increasing since the 1990s and by November 2005 it reached a record level of 77,800, resulting in increased levels of overcrowding and stretched resources. Following on from a NAO report (HC 458, session 2005-06 (ISBN 0102935696) published in October 2005, the Committee's report examines how the Home Office, the Prison Service and the National Offender Management Service (which has responsibility for managing and accommodating prisoners) are dealing with the challenges involved in accommodating this record number of prisoners, the construction and use of temporary accommodation and the impact on the delivery of education and other training for prisoners. The Committee makes a number of conclusions and recommendations including in relation to: the deportation of foreign nationals, the use of alternatives to remand such as electronic tagging, contingency planning to ensure greater flexibility in accommodation plans including pilot testing new accommodation to identify possible problems early on, the application of best practice in anti-suicide monitoring measures, and the impact of moving prisoners around the prison estate on their training needs.
Author: Northern Ireland
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 0102939756
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 56
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Book Description
Author: Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Committee of Public Accounts
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780215029416
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 44
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Book Description
Companies resident or conducting business in the UK are liable to pay corporation tax on their profits, and since 1999 corporation tax is a self-assessed tax. Companies are required to submit tax returns each year along with any tax due, and these tax returns are then checked for non-compliance. In 2004-05, HM Revenue and Customs collected about £33 billion in corporation tax, and it expects receipts to increase to £42 billion in 2005-06. Following on from a National Audit Office report (HC 678, session 2005-06; ISBN 0102936641) published in January 2006, the Committee's report examines the management of Corporation Tax and sets out a number of conclusions and recommendations. Given an estimated 40 per cent error rate in tax returns, the Department should improve its targeting of enquiries into tax returns for non-compliance and its use of risk assessment techniques in order to increase the tax yield. Plans to restructure the local area office network should help reduce local variations in performance and improve efficiency in enquiry work. All companies will be required to file their tax returns electronically by 2010, and this system should realise a number of benefits, including greater convenience for companies and a reduction in Department's costs and errors in keying-in data.
Author: OECD
Publisher: OECD Publishing
ISBN: 9264009914
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
This publication highlights the impact of culture on local economies and the methodological issues related to its identification.
Author: Derek Birrell
Publisher: Manchester University Press
ISBN: 1847797172
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 376
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Book Description
This is the first comprehensive study of direct rule as the system of governance which operated in Northern Ireland for most of the period between 1972 and 2007. The major institutions of governance are described and examined in detail, including the often neglected sectors of the role of the Westminster parliament, the civil service, local government, quangos, ombudsmen offices, cross-border structures and the public expenditure process. The book explains how the complex system covering transferred, reserved and excepted functions worked and provided viable governance despite political violence, constitutional conflict and political party disagreements. In addition, a comparison is drawn between direct rule and devolution, analysing both the positive and negative impact of direct rule, as well as identifying where there has been minimal divergence in processes and outcomes. It will prove an invaluable reference source on direct rule and provide a comparative basis for assessing devolution for students of public administration, government, politics, public policy and devolution.
Author: Maura Adshead
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1137020326
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288
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Book Description
Politics in Ireland is the first major text to provide an accessible and systematic analysis of the politics of Ireland: North as well as South. With the development of a new Northern Irish political system and increasing links across the island, the authors argue that the time is ripe to study together the two polities, which share so much of a common history but which have had very different evolutions through the 20th century. Drawing upon an exceptionally wide range of sources and their own original research, the authors deploy a thematic approach to the study of political institutions, political behaviour and public policy in both the Republic and Northern Ireland in order to produce a detailed, but highly readable, assessment of governance and politics in both political systems. This approach enables them both to outline the differences and similarities between the polities and to explain how they relate to the wider world, in particular to the UK and to Europe.
Author: Stationery Office (Great Britain)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Government publications
Languages : en
Pages : 636
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Book Description
Author: Northern Ireland
Publisher: The Stationery Office
ISBN: 9780102939705
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 48
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Book Description
The company Into the West (ITW) was established in 1997 as a partnership between the former Local Enterprise Development Unit and five district councils in Northern Ireland to promote local economic development in the Tyrone and Fermanagh area. Following a joint investigation by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and the Local Government Auditor into allegations of financial impropriety and poor management controls involving considerable sums of public money, ITW's activities were suspended from March 2002, and the company entered voluntary liquidation in June 2004. This report by the Northern Ireland Audit Office focuses on ITW's use of overseas agents (based in Australia, New Zealand and North America) to help promote joint business ventures between local firms and overseas companies. It draws a number of conclusions in relation to: the standard of documentation, the appointment of agents and the contractual arrangements involved, management and control procedures, payments to agents and performance, and the poor planning of a proposed visit to Australia; and based on these findings sets out a number of good practice recommendations for the use of agents by government departments and other public bodies in the future.
