A substantial amount of evaluation work is also undertaken by Departments and Offices outside of ERI such as under the National Development Plan etc.

Background
The Expenditure Review Initiative (ERI) is one of a range of modernization initiatives aimed at moving public sector management away from the traditional focus on inputs to concentrate more on the achievement of results. The establishment of a formal process for reviewing government expenditure was first proposed in Delivering Better Government, the 1996 report to Government by the SMI Co-ordinating Group of Secretaries. The Government approved the introduction of the ERI in 1997.

The Public Service Management Act, 1997 and the Comptroller and Auditor General (Amendment) Act, 1993 set the background for expenditure review as regards the achievement of economy, efficiency and effectiveness, and as regards the maintenance of adequate systems, practices and procedures for the purpose of evaluating effectiveness.

The development and full and active implementation of the ERI are important elements of the Government’s efforts to secure better value-for-money from public expenditure and of public service modernisation.

Objectives and structures
The objectives of the ERI are to analyse Exchequer spending in a systematic manner and to provide a basis on which more informed decisions can be made on priorities within and between programmes. Responsibility for choosing the topics for expenditure reviews rests primarily with each Department/Office. Reviews are generally carried out under the direction of steering committees. Reviews are carried out by steering committees drawn from the spending Departments/Offices having responsibility for the programmes/activities concerned. The steering committees may include external membership, which for significant reviews would include the Department of Finance. There have been two rounds of the ERI to date, and 93 expenditure reviews completed.

The ERI is overseen by the Expenditure Review Central Steering Committee (ERCSC), which is chaired by the Secretary General, Department of Finance. The other members of the Committee are the Secretaries General of the Departments of Social and Family Affairs and Transport, the Second Secretary General at the Department of Finance with responsibility for Public Expenditure Division, and an expert from outside the civil service.

The review process is supported by an Expenditure Reviewers’ Network which provides central support to reviewers and direct training in expenditure review. A panel of external assessors was established during 2003 to assess the quality of reviews being produced.

ERCSC Report to the Minister for Finance, October 2004
The ERCSC recently presented its first formal periodic report to the Minister for Finance on progress under the ERI since June 2002. A summary of the Report findings and recommendations can be found in the following link:
http://www.finance.gov.ie/documents/publications/other/exprevinitrepjune02june04.pdf

The broad conclusion of the ERCSC Report is that, while progress has been made by Departments and Offices in undertaking systematic evaluation both within and outside the ERI, and in building an evaluation culture, there is scope for further improvement. In summary, the Report’s recommendations require Departments to:

• address the problems identified in planning, managing, and resourcing the review process;
• ensure the timely completion of reviews in accordance with Government decisions;
• build the impact and effectiveness of the review process, with particular emphasis on the role of reviews in directing significant resource allocation decisions; and
• help build an evaluation culture by engaging proactively with the ERI process.

Next Steps
Departments will be invited shortly to propose review topics for the next round of the ERI, covering the period 2005-7. The schedule of reviews for all Departments under the next round will then be submitted for Government approval during the first half of 2005. Departments will be asked to take the ERCSC recommendations fully into account in the selection process for the next round of reviews.

Note: If you are a member of the Expenditure Reviewers’ Network, you can access the Network’s Extranet site at http://www.cmodservices.gov.ie/ern/ For further details, please contact the Expenditure Review Initiative Secretariat at 01-604 5895 or 01-631 8017.

Expenditure Review Initiative Secretariat
November 2004