Browse our range of reports and publications including performance and financial statement audit reports, assurance review reports, information reports and annual reports.
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 47 of 2019–20)
Published: Thursday 25 June 2020
Published
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.
Entity
Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment
Contact
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Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 49 of 2011–12)
Published: Monday 25 June 2012
Published
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.
Entity
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 26 of 2006–07)
Published: Tuesday 20 February 2007
Published
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.
Entity
Centrelink
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 3 of 1998–99)
Published: Wednesday 12 August 1998
Published
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.
Entity
Australian Taxation Office
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 40 of 1998–99)
Published: Monday 24 May 1999
Published
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.
Entity
Department of Industry, Science and Resources
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 16 of 1995–96)
Published: Tuesday 2 April 1996
Published
This audit focused on tax compliance strategies aimed at rebates paid under the Diesel Fuel Rebate Scheme (DFRS) administered by the Australian Customs Service.
Entity
Australian Taxation Office
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 34 of 2000–01)
Published: Thursday 17 May 2001
Published
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.
Entity
Centrelink
Request for audit
Responded: Tuesday 21 August 2018
Response provided
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.
Contact
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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.
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 27 of 1997–98)
Published: Thursday 18 December 1997
Published
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.
Entity
Across Agency
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 50 of 2011–12)
Published: Monday 25 June 2012
Published
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.
Entity
Australian Customs and Border Protection Service
- 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.
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 38 of 2002–03)
Published: Thursday 10 April 2003
Published
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.
Entity
Across Agency
- 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.
- Regulators should assess the level of risk across the entire breadth of their regulation, and then target their monitoring and compliance activities at those areas with the highest level of risk.
- To support the development of controls and mitigation strategies and an assessment of the effectiveness of controls, fraud risks should be broken down into specific elements relevant to the source of the risk.
- Crises require rapid responses. Preparedness for crisis response should occur in a non-crisis setting and requires robust planning informed by risk assessments. Testing and exercising helps to ensure that roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and understood. These mechanisms also help to ensure that entities can implement relevant plans quickly and, where multiple stakeholders are involved, in a coordinated manner. Regular evaluation of preparedness, including risk reviews to identify new and emerging risks and threats and allow for minor course corrections over time, rather than requiring a significant shift without sufficient testing.
- Fraud and corruption risks need to be clearly covered in entities’ fraud and corruption control plans and these plans be informed by thorough risk assessments, and mitigated by effective controls.
- For regulatory entities, external fraud risks need to be clearly covered in their fraud and corruption control plans and be informed by thorough risk assessments and mitigated by effective controls.
- Setting a benchmark against which performance is assessed can improve organisational effectiveness and assist an entity to make decisions about when and how to deploy its resources. To ensure benchmarks are reliable, verifiable and free from bias, entities should regularly review performance measures (including targets and benchmarks) and amend if necessary to ensure they are fit for purpose.
- Management of fraud and corruption risk should not be a ‘set and forget’ compliance exercise. Entities must conduct risk assessments of fraud and corruption when there are substantial changes in structure, functions or activities.
- Transcribing meetings of assessment panels provides a comprehensive record of key inputs to decision-making. It is consistent with accountability and transparency principles of the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles, and represents better practise in grants administration. The benefits of transcriptions to entities include: streamlining record keeping; supporting entities to demonstrate the basis for funding recommendations and decisions; and supporting the provision of feedback to unsuccessful applicants (the Commonwealth Grants Rules and Principles outline that feedback promotes transparency in decision-making and improves the capacity of potential grantees to apply for future grant activities).
- Entities can demonstrate compliant, transparent, and accountable procurement processes through the creation and retention of appropriate records, including for: decisions on the procurement approach; assessment against selection criteria; engagement with tenderers; and the rationale for proceeding to negotiations.
- Early engagement with evaluation expertise is needed to determine the appropriate type of evaluation for the policy or program, to identify and manage evaluation risks, and ensure the collection, and appropriate assessment, of data and information to draw robust policy conclusions.
- When establishing a performance measurement framework, it is important to clearly define performance benchmarks and develop relevant, reliable and complete indicators and targets in order to facilitate a meaningful assessment of progress and outcomes.
- Entities can demonstrate compliant, transparent and accountable procurement processes through the creation and retention of appropriate records, including for: decisions on the procurement approach; the shortlisting of options; the method for assessing value for money; assessment against selection criteria; and the rationale for the decision that was made.
- To support the management of conflicts of interest, declarations must be sufficiently detailed to facilitate a risk assessment and develop a management plan that will address the risk. Communicating key measures from conflict management plans assists with implementing measures.
- Where conflict of interest issues arise during a grant assessment, procurement or recruitment activity, it may be appropriate to pause the activity to investigate and address the issues and recommence when the issues have been resolved.
- The core rule of the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs) is achieving value for money, irrespective of the type of procurement process undertaken. Responsibility for assessing value for money rests with officials under the CPRs, including for processes where ministers are the final decision-makers on procurement outcomes. Officials discharge this responsibility by undertaking activities that include:
- undertaking a value for money assessment as required under the CPRs;
- advising ministers on the outcome of the value for money assessment;
- advising ministers of CPR requirements; and
- maintaining records as required under the CPRs.
- Effective risk management during procurement processes is supported by identifying, assessing and treating procurement risks early in the process and thereafter on an ongoing basis, including developing and maintaining a risk management plan, risk registers, and mitigation strategies for all risks.
- When delivering a package of initiatives intended to contribute to common policy objectives, entities should establish arrangements to provide coordinated governance, risk assessment and reporting across all programs and initiatives. This should include appropriate levels of oversight over how the programs and initiatives are performing against the overall policy objectives.
- When transitioning from an existing business management system to a replacement system, senior management should carefully assess and actively manage risks relating to the possible degradation of the existing system and non-compliance with requirements relating to its operation.
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 11 of 2020–21)
Published: Monday 28 September 2020
Published
The ANAO conducted separate audits of the Indigenous Advancement Strategy (IAS) Children and Schooling program and the Safety and Wellbeing program, the findings and conclusions of which are presented in this report. The objective of the audits was to assess the effectiveness of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s and the National Indigenous Australians Agency’s administration of the IAS Children and Schooling and the Safety and Wellbeing programs.
Entity
National Indigenous Australians Agency
Contact
Please direct enquiries through our contact page.
- Entities should consider the risk of expanded or varied program eligibility and assessment criteria, which could either disadvantage some applications or lead to an expansion in the program’s size, when designing a grant program to deliver election commitments.
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 13 of 2024–25)
Published: Thursday 14 November 2024
Published
The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the implementation and award of funding for Round 1 of the Growing Regions Program.
Entity
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communication and the Arts; Department of Industry, Science and Resources
Contact
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Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 23 of 2019–20)
Published: Wednesday 15 January 2020
Published
The objective of the audit was to assess whether the award of funding under the Community Sport Infrastructure Grant Program was informed by an appropriate assessment process and sound advice.
Entity
Australian Sports Commission
Contact
Please direct enquiries through our contact page.
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 12 of 2019–20)
Published: Tuesday 5 November 2019
Published
The objective of the audit was to assess whether the award of funding under the Regional Jobs and Investment Packages program was informed by appropriate departmental advice and that processes complied with the grants administration framework.
Entity
Department of Industry, Innovation and Science; Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Cities and Regional Development
Contact
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Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 16 of 2021–22)
Published: Monday 14 February 2022
Published
The objective of this audit was to assess whether the award of funding under the Safer Communities Fund was effective and consistent with the Commonwealth Grant Rules and Guidelines.
Entity
Department of Home Affairs; Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources
Contact
Please direct enquiries through our contact page.
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 28 of 2023–24)
Published: Wednesday 22 May 2024
Published
The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of the design and award of funding for Round 6 of the Mobile Black Spot Program.
Entity
Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts
Contact
Please direct enquiries through our contact page.
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 16 of 2024–25)
Published: Wednesday 11 December 2024
Published
The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of the design process for the Energy Price Relief Plan.
Entity
Department of the Treasury; Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
Contact
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Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 35 of 2024–25)
Recent
Published: Monday 26 May 2025
Published
The objective of this audit was to assess whether the award of funding under the Disaster Ready Fund was effective and consistent with the published guidelines.
Entity
National Emergency Management Agency
Contact
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Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 5 of 2019–20)
Published: Thursday 1 August 2019
Published
The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of the Australian Research Council’s (ARC’s) administration of the National Competitive Grants Program (NCGP).
Entity
Australian Research Council
Contact
Please direct enquiries through our contact page.
- The risks of contracted advisers having a conflict of interest with potential/actual market respondents should be fully considered and addressed.
Performance audit (Auditor-General Report No. 35 of 2019–20)
Published: Thursday 30 April 2020
Published
The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of grant program management by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA).
Entity
Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA)
Contact
Please direct enquiries through our contact page.