The Irish Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan, has published a revised and updated version of the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies. The Code, which was last revised in 2001, 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. On its publication, the Minister stated:
“The Government has decided to update the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies to reflect revisions across a range of legislation and administration. The revised Code of Practice is to ensure that state bodies observe the highest standards in acting in the interests of the people.”
The updated code includes a range of changes since 2001 in legislation and administrative guidelines that have implications for the governance framework of state bodies: revisions have been made in ethics and standards in public office legislation, guidelines on the pay of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of commercial state bodies, and tax clearance procedures for public sector contracts. Certain Department of Finance circulars have also been updated and a number of significant reports such as the Mullarkey Report have issued. More recently, the Public Accounts Committee’s Interim Report on the 2007 FÁS Accounts contained recommendations for the corporate governance of state bodies in general, and for the Code of Practice in particular.
According to a government statement, corporate governance best practice has moved on since 2001: a number of notable reference documents have been issued such as the UK Financial Reporting Council’s Combined Code on Corporate Governance, the UK Independent Commission on Good Governance in Public Services’ Good Governance Standard for Public Services and the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance. These developments are also taken account of in the up-dated code.
The revised code also makes reference to the recommendations of the Task Force appointed by the Prime Minister on foot of the OECD’s 2008 Review of the Irish Public Service. However, the new governance framework recommended by the Taskforce is intended to be broader in scope than the current code: it will cover, inter alia, departmental oversight, appointment of directors, the role of departmental nominees, and shareholder consultation where stakeholder boards are not in place. The Department of Finance will lead the development of new models of performance and governance frameworks over the next eight to twelve months and the Code of Conduct can be further amended as necessary to reflect these developments.
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