The Mullarkey Report

The Mullarkey Report, Report of the Working Group on the Accountability of Secretaries General and Accounting Officers (2002), set down rules of good governance for Secretaries General and other accounting officers. The recommendations from the group were seen to address the following issues:

• The need for clarity in relation to responsibility and accountability and the constitutional and legal basis for it.
• The need for a rounded, multi-dimensional view of the secretary general/accounting officer roles which included service delivery, value for money, compliance and organisational improvement.
• The desirability of making full use of existing accountability mechanisms.
• The requirement that the existing system provide for an increasing focus on the performance of the secretary general/accounting officer.
• The importance of having management and governance systems balanced to support constructive review and continuous improvement while having the capacity to deal with serious issues when they arise.

The report set down an implementation timetable, which included the preparation by each accounting officer of a statement of internal financial control, the introduction of formal risk management strategies, an adequately resourced internal audit function and an audit committee with external representation

The Report of the Working group on the Accountability of Secretaries General and Accounting officers, 2002 (The Mullarkey Report) may be downloaded in full from the Department of Finance website