June 2019 Regional Event
Over 90 delegates attended a CIPFA NI Region event on 12 June 2019, which was organised in partnership with Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI). Kieran Donnelly, Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) for Northern Ireland provided his insights into maintaining appropriate stewardship of public money in an environment where Northern Ireland has been without a working Assembly.
Kieran is a CIPFA member and those present took the opportunity to congratulate him on having been recently honoured in the Queen's Birthday Honours List, when he was named as Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) for services to the Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO).
The event was held in the CAI offices in Belfast, with introductions by Colette Kane (NIAO and member of CAI) and closing remarks by Steve Mungavin (CIPFA NI branch).
A copy of Kieran's presentation can be downloaded here.
2019 Annual General Meeting
The NI Regional AGM took place on 18 June 2019 in the Boardroom of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive where the current Chair, Catherine McFarland, is Director of Finance.
The meeting marked the beginning of Catherine's second year of her two-year term as Chair. After opening the meeting and welcoming some regular and new faces to the AGM, Catherine summarised her past year as Chair of the Northern Ireland Region.
Catherine referred to the closure of the CIPFA Northern Ireland office in Belfast and the difficulties this presented. The Executive Committee had enjoyed a very close working relationship with the staff of the NI office over the past 25 years and the committee and members in Northern Ireland had benefited from the local support and profile of the Institute provided by the Belfast office. Catherine expressed her thanks to the CIPFA NI staff for those years of support.
Understandably the priority for the Executive Committee over the next 12 months will be the refocus of the region and the establishment of new relationships with CIPFA headquarters.
Locally the committee had decided to concentrate on delivering two events during the year. Firstly, a high-quality CPD event for members; this event involving the Comptroller and Auditor General had been held within the previous week and had been very successful.
The second event will be Public Finance Live NI – the CIPFA Northern Ireland conference, including the NI Public Finance Awards. Working with staff at CIPFA in London, an exciting programme is being developed for the conference which will be held at the Stormont Hotel on 17 October 2019.
Following Catherine's address, Tony Ewing, Treasurer, presented the financial statements for the NI region for the year ended 31 December 2018.
A copy of the financial statements can be downloaded here.
