Centenary Commemoration
The 12th January 2023 marked the 100th anniversary of the formal establishment of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The anniversary provided us with the opportunity to reflect on the establishment and development of the Office which, in supporting the Comptroller and Auditor General, plays a key role in the process of democratic accountability and for the reporting and use of public funds in Ireland.
We had a programme of activities to commemorate this significant event in 2023, one of which was the recent launch of a new history of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General which took place in The Royal Irish Academy.
There were a number of guest speakers in attendance to launch the booklet, including the Minister for Finance, Michael McGrath, the Chair of the Committee of Public Accounts, Mr. Brian Stanley T.D. and the Comptroller and Auditor General, Mr. Seamus McCarthy. There was a discussion on the history of the Office between Dr Marie Léoutre, Historian, Royal Irish Academy and Professor Colin Scott, College of Social Sciences and Law, University College Dublin. Photographs from the event can be seen here.
The recently launched booklet on the history of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, marking 100 years since the establishment of the Office, can be accessed with the link below:
History of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General, 1923 - 2023
A breakdown of costs associated with the development, publication and launch of this history is available here.
A webinar, hosted by The National Archives, took place on Tuesday, the 28 November 2023 at 6pm. A lecture titled “The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General at 100” was given by Dr Marie Léoutre and discussed the creation of the Office, the work to stabilise the State after the Civil War and the modernisation of the Office.
The webinar has been made available on the National Archives website here.
In January, we kicked-off the centenary commemoration at the Annual Conference. The programme included several centenary related presentations and speakers, including
Dr Marie Léoutre, Historian, Royal Irish Academy
Professor Muiris MacCarthaigh, Queen’s University Belfast
Professor Colin Scott, College of Social Sciences and Law, University College Dublin
The Institute of Public Administration has dedicated one of its quarterly journals to marking the Office's anniversary. The journal includes contributions from Dr. Kevin De Barra, Prof. Colin Scott, Prof. Muiris MacCarthlaigh, Catherine Lynch (Houses of the Oireachtas Service) and Dr. Marie Léoutre. A link to the publication can be found here. The Office is delighted to end its centenary year with this publication, which is an insightful and interesting read.
INTOSAI Performance Audit Sub-committee meeting
As part of the centenary events, we hosted the PAS annual meeting in March 2023 in Dublin Castle, where a number of key topics were discussed, including the scheduled maintenance of the performance audit standards and the PAS terms of reference. The theme of knowledge-sharing was supported by presentations and discussions on data analytics and visualisation, environmental performance audit, quality review and impact of reports and impact of science and technology. Hosting this high-profile international event required a lot of preparation – the work of everyone involved is much appreciated. Further details of the meeting can be found here. An article on our centenary was also published in the INTOSAI Journal.
Decade of Centenaries 2012-2023: 2023 Programme
2023 brought the Decade of Centenaries Programme (2012-2023) to a close, with the centenary of the admission of the Irish Free State to the League of Nations in September. The centenaries of some of the greatest atrocities of the Civil War also occured, as well as the ending of the conflict. Key cultural and societal milestones were marked, including the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Yeats in 1923 and the establishment of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The full programme is available in Irish and English
