Andrew Southcott (Boothby, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, I present the committee's report, entitled Report 443: Review of Auditor-General's Reports Nos. 23 and 25 (2012-13) and 32 (2012-13) to 9 (2013-14).

In accordance with standing order 39(e) the report was made a parliamentary paper.

by leave—This report details the findings of the committee's examination of the following three Australian National Audit Office reports:

The cross-cutting theme of the committee's review of these three reports is the extent to which audited agencies have institutionalised agreed reforms arising from internal and external audit and reviews.

Audit report No. 53 assessed the effectiveness of agencies' arrangements for monitoring and implementing ANAO performance audit recommendations. The audit included an assessment of the ability of agencies to respond to recommendations from ANAO reports that have general application to the Commonwealth public service.

The agencies selected for audit were:

Audit report No. 53 provides tangible examples of good practice.

Indeed, the committee commends DEEWR for the professionalism and diligence it has shown in establishing and maintaining a better practice model. The DEEWR system exhibits the features of a better practice model and all Commonwealth agencies are encouraged to review their own systems in light of both DEEWR's example and the ANAO's findings.

With the two reports examining the Department of Defence's activities, the outcomes were somewhat different and the committee has made a number of specific recommendations. In Audit report No. 25, the committee recommended that:

The committee is very concerned that Audit report No. 6 found significant delays in keeping government advised on the progress and/or difficulties in projects. This is unacceptable and not consistent with good public administration. The committee made recommendations to the Department of Defence to:

The reform of capability development has been a concern for successive governments, and, in the committee's view, the ANAO audit has provided a valuable contribution to the reform process. The committee supports the selective use of follow-up audits and the value of the audit in this context which took a wider and deeper view of the extent to which reform had been achieved.

I would like to sincerely thank the committee members and agency representatives who appeared at public hearings for their cooperative approach to the committee's important task of scrutinising the spending of public money.

I commend the report to the House.

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