From Accounting to Accountability: A Centenary History of the Australian National Audit Office


Authors: John Wanna, Christine Ryan and Chew Ng

The Australian National Audit Office commissioned a team of authors to write a history of the ANAO to celebrate its Centenary as an official Australian Centenary of Federation (1901-2001) project. From Accounting to Accountability traces the evolution of the Audit Office over the Twentieth century. It charts the major developments in audit reporting and practice and explores relations with key stakeholders.

The book was officially launched by Senator the Hon. Margaret Reid, President of the Senate, on 14 November 2001. The book was published (ISBN 1-86508-672-X) by Allen & Unwin and is available at leading booksellers.

Synopsis

The Australian National Audit Office remains a fundamental institution of public accountability in the Commonwealth of Australia. Established in 1902 to perform a relatively limited function, the Audit Office built on its initial role of verifying the public accounts and extended its mandate gradually improving the ways governments are held to account.

Successive Auditors-General have strenuously fought for their independence from government and the bureaucracy, and also felt the need to defend their mandate at particular times. After some intense political struggles between the Executive, the Auditor-General and Parliament, the Auditor-General was declared an Independent Officer of the Parliament in 1997, to protect the independence of the Office and express a closer working relationship to the Parliament.

Reviews

The 2002 edition of the Asian Journal of Government Audit featured an article on From Accounting to Accountability -- A Centenary History of the Australian National Audit Office. Since its publication in November 2001, the book has received a number of positive reviews, including by Mr Athol Yates in the Canberra Bulletin of Public Adminstration (No.104, June 2002) and Mr Bob Shead in the Australian Journal of Public Administration (September 2002).

A particularly interesting aspect of the book, that was pointed out by the reviewers, is the discussion of the ANAO’s initial implementation of performance auditing. Another area that the reviewers found particularly engrossing was the analysis of the ANAO’s relationships with its stakeholders (such as Parliament, other accountability institutions and the entities that the ANAO audits).

The book has been hailed as ‘absorbing’ and Mr Yates claims that the authors, John Wanna, Christine Ryan and Chew Ng, ‘are to be congratulated for producing such a readable history’. Mr Shead writes that the book has ‘brought together much useful material on the circumstances, personalities, tensions and opportunities that have shaped the role of the Commonwealth Auditor-General as it has evolved in parallel with developments in the scope and governance of the Commonwealth public sector over the twentieth century’.

Last updated: 15 November 2006