The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is responsible for regulating aviation safety in Australia, the safety of Australian aircraft operating overseas as well as for regulating and administering Australia's airspace. In September 2008, the Senate Committee on Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport presented a report on the Administration of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and related matters. That report made three recommendations, one of which requested an Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) audit of CASA's implementation and administration of the regulation of aircraft operators' Safety Management Systems (SMS'). ANAO agreed to this request with the objective of the audit being to assess CASA's implementation and administration of an SMS approach to regulating aircraft operators.

An SMS is a systematic approach to managing safety, which encompasses organisational structures, accountabilities, policies and procedures. Amendments to the Convention on International Civil Aviation (commonly referred to as the Chicago Convention) made in 2006 require that contracting states regulate the SMS' of aircraft operators. As a contracting state to the Chicago Convention, Australia is required to mandate that aircraft operators implement an SMS.

The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of procurement complaints handling by the Australian Communications and Media Authority, the Department of Finance, the Department of Industry, Science and Resources and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Mr Ian McPhee - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at the CPA Congress

The audit reviewed the planning and management of the Australian Defence Force deployments to East Timor, including the support of those deployments. The audit focused on planning for the deployments and the role of Australia as the lead nation in the International Force in East Timor (INTERFET); and financial, personnel, logistic and other systems used to deploy and sustain Australia's military presence in East Timor.

Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presentation to Macquarie University

Mr Ian McPhee - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at the Canberra Evaluation Forum

Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presented an Occasional Paper

Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presented an Occasional Paper

Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at the Comcover Seminar

The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of Industry Innovation and Science Australia's, the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources', and the Australian Taxation Office's administration of the Research and Development Tax Incentive program.