Mr Ian McPhee - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Australia New Zealand School of Government Conference

The general objectives of the audit were to:

• obtain and report quantitative and qualitative benchmarks of performance in the public sector; and
• compare the public sector benchmarks with equivalent international data to identify better practices and highlight opportunities for improvement.

In relation to internal audit, given the three-year duration of the study, these generic objectives have been extended to include an analysis of trends in internal audit over the past three years.

The audit reviewed six budget-funded agencies (Australian Customs Service, Australian Taxation Office, Centrelink, Department of Defence, Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs, and Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs) and two off-budget entities (Airservices Australia and Reserve Bank of Australia). The ANAO also examined the Office for Government Online's (OGO, formerly the Office of Government Information Technology, or OGIT) whole-of-government coordination of the Commonwealth's Year 2000 efforts.

The audit reviewed the management of unscheduled absence in 74 APS agencies. The objective of the audit was to assess the extent and cost of unscheduled absence in the APS; to examine whether unscheduled absence in the APS was being managed efficiently and effectively; and to identify opportunities for improvement.

The audit reviewed the extent to which the Department of Health and Ageing (Health) had implemented the recommendations of Audit Report No. 13 of 1998-1999, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Program, taking account of any changed circumstances or new administrative issues identified as impacting the implementation of these recommendations.

The objective of this audit was to assess key aspects of Australian Government agencies' fraud control arrangements to effectively prevent, detect and respond to fraud, as outlined in the Guidelines. The scope of the audit included 173 agencies subject to the FMA Act or the CAC Act.

The purpose of this audit was to assess the Department of Social Security's approach to customer service against a recognised good practice methodology, and to identify opportunities for DSS to improve the quality of its customer service, its administrative effectiveness and its overall performance. The ANAO's intention was to identify opportunities to improve customer focus, particularly for those aspects of DSS's administration impacting on customer service. The audit criteria included: customer service environment; human resource management practices; communication with customers; customer-friendly approaches; and systematic approaches to continuous improvement.

The objective of the audit was to examine the effectiveness of the management and control framework established by the Australian National Training Authority to assist its administration and achievement of its objectives. The ANAO's investigation was limited to an analysis of ANTA's internal administrative framework. The audit work focused on key components of the framework: planning, monitoring, and financial and control frameworks.

Mr Ian McPhee - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at the ACAG Panel Forum, CPA Australia

This follow-up audit examined the actions taken by the Department of Veterans' Affairs to address the ANAO's recommendations made in Audit Report No.28 1993-94 regarding the use of private hospitals on behalf of the Repatriation Commission. The recommendations from that audit were aimed at improving the basis and consistency of contracts with the private sector for the use of private hospitals and providing added assurance that quality care was available to the veteran community.