To ask the Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure what mechanisms are in place in her Department to monitor funds which it has allocated, and which are being facilitated and executed through district councils.

The Department currently provides funding to councils for two main purposes - for Community Festivals across the north and for City of Culture legacy (specifically to Derry City Council).

In the case of festivals, while my Department has overall policy responsibility for the Community Festivals Fund, responsibility for making awards to individual festivals has, since 2008, been devolved to councils.

Monitoring arrangements include the requirement for each council to provide an annual report to the Department which provides details of festivals supported and an assessment of their impact on local communities. The expenditure of councils is also, of course, subject to annual audit by the Local Government Auditor.

Since it is not a recurring programme, the arrangements around funding Derry City Council (DCC) for City of Culture Legacy are different. A detailed letter of offer provides a monitoring framework which deals with internal processes , financial management and governance matters within DCC. A North West team within the Department exercises an oversight role over Legacy activities and financial support. Funding requests from DCC are accompanied by approvals from its own internal audit function and are subject to further scrutiny within the Department.

The Department occasionally makes smaller grants available to councils for discrete projects. Letters of offer set out conditions for spend which is usually verified by reference to supporting documentation and/ or physical inspection.