Audit Committee, 11 Jan 2008
Meeting date: Friday, January 11, 2008
Official Report
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Scottish Parliament Audit Committee Friday 11 January 2008
[The Temporary Convener opened the meeting at 10:01]
Fàilte oirbh uile ach, tha mi duilich, chan eil a' Ghàidhlig agam. Welcome everyone. I am sorry that I do not speak Gaelic—the language of the garden of Eden—but I bid everybody a warm welcome to the first meeting in 2008 of the Scottish Parliament's Audit Committee.
The committee's role is to hold to account individuals and organisations that spend public money, and to establish whether that is being done efficiently and effectively. The committee does not concern itself with the rights and wrongs of Government policy; rather, it concerns itself only with whether policy has been implemented in a way that secures best value for the public purse.
Today, we shall talk to past and present members of Western Isles NHS Board in order to gain more information about issues that have been raised by the Auditor General for Scotland in his report on the board's 2006-07 accounts.
I thank members of the public for coming to the meeting and welcome representatives of the media, who will film parts of the meeting. I remind everyone to switch off their mobile phones and pagers, please.
We have received apologies from the convener and deputy convener of the committee—Hugh Henry and Murdo Fraser respectively—and Jim Hume. I welcome James Kelly, who will substitute for Hugh Henry, and Derek Brownlee, who will substitute for Murdo Fraser.