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The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment’s administration of referrals, assessments and approvals of controlled actions under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.
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The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of ASIO’s arrangements for providing timely and soundly based security assessments of individuals to client agencies.
The Age Pension is Australia's largest social security programme delivering approximately $22 billion to 1.9 million Australians in 2005-06. The Age Pension programme is administered by Centrelink on behalf of its client agency the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs.
The objective of the audit was to examine the effectiveness of Centrelink's administration of complex assessments of customer entitlements for the Age Pension programme, particularly through the use of Complex Assessment Officers.
This is a follow-up audit to Audit Report No. 16, 1995-1996, Assessable Government Industry Assistance. This audit examined whether the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) had implemented the appropriate balance of compliance strategies to ensure that Australian Government Industry Assistance (AGIA) is adequately identified, disclosed to the ATO, and the revenue collected in an efficient and administratively effective manner. The objective of this audit was to report on the action taken by the Australian Taxation Office in addressing the recommendations of the 1996 Audit Report.
The Pharmaceutical Industry Investment Program (PIIP) is a scheme that was introduced to compensate the pharmaceutical industry, in part, for the impact of the Government exercising its monopsony power under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme. The ANAO undertook an audit of the probity of the methodology and procedures applied by the Department in assessment of applicants for PIIP funding. The objectives of the audit were to assist the Department, at its request, in the timely identification of deficiencies in assessing responses from applicants and options for addressing any such deficiencies.
This audit focused on tax compliance strategies aimed at rebates paid under the Diesel Fuel Rebate Scheme (DFRS) administered by the Australian Customs Service.
The Age Pension is a social security income support payment available to Australian residents and eligible Australians residing overseas who have reached Age Pension age and whose income and assets are under certain limits. In 1999-2000, approximately $14 billion was paid to approximately 1.7 million Age Pension recipients. Payment of Age Pension is made under the Social Security Law and in accordance with the Guide to the Social Security Law prepared by the Department of Family and Community Services (FaCS). FaCS has contracted Centrelink under a Business Partnership Agreement (BPA) to administer the payment of Age Pension to eligible customers. The objective of the audit was to assess the extent to which new claims for Age Pension had been assessed in compliance with the legislation and other relevant guidelines developed by Centrelink, and whether Centrelink employed appropriate mechanisms to help ensure such compliance. In particular, the ANAO sought evidence with respect to: payment at the right rate, from the right date, to the right person with the right product, for new claims assessed during the audit sample period (that is, in accordance with the working definition of accuracy within Centrelink); the accuracy of Centrelink?s own reporting on compliance, as reported to FaCS under the BPA; and the application of appropriate mechanisms to help ensure such compliance.
The Auditor-General responded on 21 August 2018 to correspondence from Dr Jim Chalmers MP and Ms Michelle Rowland MP dated 26 July 2018, requesting that the Auditor-General conduct an assurance review of the financial assumptions underpinning the long-term economics of the NBN.
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- To support a meaningful assessment of progress and improvements, regulators should establish clear measurables so that performance can be monitored, evaluated and reported on an ongoing basis.
The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of Customs and Border Protection's risk-based management of end-to-end processing of incoming international air passengers in achieving border security and passenger facilitation outcomes.
The audit surveyed a wide range of Commonwealth agencies' Year 2000 preparedness, their management of the problem and their application of core corporate governance principles, including risk management disciplines. The scope of the audit reflected the wide ranging ramifications of the Year 2000 problem for agencies' overall functions (whole-of-business) internally as well as in terms of external interactions. The audit objectives were to:
- assess the adequacy of agencies' planning in relation to achieving Year 2000 compliance;
- review and assess agencies' implementation, management and monitoring of Year 2000 compliance strategies;
- review agencies' strategic risk assessments in relation to the Year 2000 changeover; and
- raise surveyed agencies' and other Commonwealth agencies' awareness of the various aspects of the Year 2000 problem.
- When an entity seeks to assess the effectiveness of an activity, it should ensure that targets are set, are measurable, and enable benchmarks to be developed.
- To ensure compliance with Australian Government funding requirements, all assessment criteria used to assess applications should be clearly outlined in the program guidelines. Entities should not complete additional assessments that are not set out in the guidelines.
- Assurance over the completeness and accuracy of data is required when assessing and reporting on the performance of services delivered by third parties on behalf of the Australian Government.
- Regular assessment of security terms and conditions when changes in goods, services or business environment occur can assist with achieving government security requirements.
The audit reviewed the administration of referrals, assessments and approvals processes under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The objective of the audit was to examine and report on the quality and timeliness of environmental assessments and approvals under the Act, as well as on Environment Australia's activities to ensure compliance with the Act.
- Entities collecting information to support performance monitoring, assessment of outcomes and grant program evaluation should consider linkages to existing Commonwealth data sets to verify data reported from grant recipients and implement mechanisms to substantiate other third-party data sources. Consideration should be given to the risk and materiality of the grant program, the key risks to data accuracy, and the importance of the data and/or outcomes assessment informing decisions related to future funding and/or design of new grant programs.
- When assessment is conducted by individuals or parties outside of the decision-makers listed in the guidelines, entities should promote transparency by clearly identifying who is undertaking the assessment and participating in making recommendations to decision-makers.
- When assessing client satisfaction, it is important that the methodology employed provides results that are representative and reliable.
- A strategy assists with assessing effectiveness in achieving objectives by establishing clear and measurable performance expectations, identifying the information to be collected for assessment and evaluation purposes, and establishing a framework for progress reporting and evaluation against the documented expectations.
- Entities should consider the approach to value-for-money assessment for contract variations where there is incremental change.
- When designing a policy or program, entities should embed a review cycle to assess its continuing effectiveness.
- Entities must ensure that they have sufficient and complete information to identify, assess, monitor and respond to external fraud risks.
- Regulatory capture risks should be identified, assessed and controlled to provide assurance that regulators are acting in accordance with governing legislation.
- Public services are increasingly reliant on the availability of systems. Entities should understand and assess the need for critical business continuity and disaster recovery management and frame their security documentation and processes on the basis that cyber security incidents could disrupt or shut down the delivery of digital services to the Australian public.
- The benefits of establishing performance targets are diminished where entities do not assess and report their performance against those targets.
- Entities must ensure that they have sufficient and complete information to identify, assess and monitor all internal and external fraud risks.
- Fraud losses can occur rapidly, particularly during large-scale fraud events. Entities should regularly assess the risk of a large-scale fraud event, monitor early warning signals and plan for a whole-of-entity response that can mobilise resources with the aim of minimising fraud losses and recovering amounts lost to fraud.
- Before implementing process or system improvements, entities should identify and record baseline evidence for use in assessing the impact of changes, post-implementation.
- To facilitate a meaningful assessment of progress and achievement, regulators should ensure that they are monitoring and evaluating against targets and reporting on their effectiveness in achieving regulatory objectives.