The ANAO will conduct a program of audits of entities’ compliance with legislative and Australian Government policy requirements derived from the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013, the Public Service Act 1999 and other legislative and policy frameworks. These audits include a focus on public sector ethics, integrity and probity.

Topics that may be considered for audit include compliance with: requirements to establish audit committees; requirements relating to recruitment and remuneration in the Australian Public Service; requirements related to privacy; and information management requirements.

ANAO audits continue to find that in routine areas of public administration (e.g. record keeping, governance, procurement and risk management), performance consistently falls short. Compliance — not just with mandatory requirements, but also their intent — is a hallmark of integrity, and essential to the craft of public administration.

The selection of entities for these audits will be based on relevance, materiality, representativeness and performance history. Audits may include any Commonwealth entities and companies. The audits would examine the effectiveness of entities’ design, implementation and governance arrangements to ensure compliance with relevant requirements.

The objective of this audit was to assess the extent to which the recommendations and major findings of the ANAO's 1999 audit of Commonwealth Debt Management have been addressed, and the impact of any changes.

An Audit Committee Chairs Forum was held on Friday, 4 December 2020. The venue was the Australian National Audit Office, 38 Sydney Avenue, Forrest ACT.

The text on this page is the communique from the forum. 

The Audit Committee Chairs Forum is a joint initiative of the Department of Finance and the ANAO and includes the general government and non-general government sector Audit Committee Chairs. This communique covers the outcomes of the discussion at the forum on 7 June 2017 including updates from the Auditor-General and the ANAO, and from the Department of Finance.

The Auditor-General responded on 29 April 2019 to correspondence from the Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources, the Hon David Littleproud MP, dated 23 April 2019, requesting that the audit of purchases of environmental water by the Commonwealth, and on behalf of the Commonwealth, currently listed as a potential audit be brought forward and expanded. 

An Audit Committee Chairs Forum was held on Friday 8 December 2023. The text on this page is the communique from the forum.

The audit is a follow-up to Audit Report 12, 1995-96 Risk Management by Commonwealth Consumer Product Safety Regulators. The objectives of this follow-up audit were to determine the extent to which ANZFA had implemented the agreed recommendations contained in the 1995 Audit Report, and to determine the effectiveness of the implemented recommendations in improving food safety regulation.

This audit is a follow-up to ANAO Audit Report No.31 1995-96 Environmental Management of Commonwealth Land: Site Contamination and Pollution Prevention (‘the original audit'). The objectives of the follow-up audit were to determine: the extent to which Defence has implemented the agreed recommendations contained in the original audit (relating to its environmental management and the management of unexploded ordnance (UXO) on non-Commonwealth land) and; the effectiveness of the implemented recommendations in improving the environmental management of Commonwealth land.

An Audit Committee Chairs Forum was held at the Hotel Realm on Friday, 9 December 2022. The communique from the forum is now available here.

An Audit Committee Chairs Forum was held on Friday, 3 December 2021. It was both an in-person and virtual event.

The text on this page is the communique from the forum.