New Revised Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies
The Department of Finance has published a revised and updated Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies, which ‘sets out the governance framework agreed by Government for the internal management, and the internal and external reporting relationships, of commercial and non-commercial State bodies.’ The previous edition of the Code was published in 2001.
The updated Code covers a range of changes that have occurred in the field of public governance affecting state bodies since 2001. These include Ethics and Standards in Public Office legislation, guidelines on the pay of CEOs of commercial state bodies, and the tax clearance procedures for public sector contracts. It also takes into account the Public Accounts Committee’s Interim Report on the 2007 FÁS accounts and its recommendations for the corporate governance of state bodies in general.
As well as citing best practice in the public and private spheres and internationally, the revised Code makes reference to the recommendations of the Task Force on the Public Sector, which was established by the Taoiseach on foot of the 2008 OECD Review of the Irish Public Service.
Another important component of the revised Code is the reference to Board room competencies and the next Governance Forum event on Thursday, 25 June will discuss the attributes of effective board members. For more details, click here (PDF).
The Governance Forum plans to host a seminar on the revised Code on Monday, 14 September 2009. Full details are available in the ‘events’ section.
To download the revised Code, click here.