The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the Department of Veterans’ Affairs’ administration of residential care payments.

ANAO found that the actions taken by the Department during the course of the audit to update and improve the Notes on Administration and administrative processes, by commissioning various specialist studies and reviewing governance issues, has established a sound basis for ongoing effective management of the National Highway System. The Department advised ANAO that changes to the Notes on Administration reflect joint work done with the ANAO to identify where improvements could be made and incorporate not only suggestions and recommendations that the ANAO has made in the final report but also during the audit. ANAO considers that the comprehensive revision of the Notes on Administration undertaken by the Department should foster marked improvements in the management of the National Highway System.

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

Mr Ian McPhee, PSM - Auditor-General for Australia, presented to the Senate Occasional Lecture, Parliament House Canberra

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is the Commonwealth's principal revenue collection agency. In 1998-99, the ATO accounted for total tax revenue of $135.3 billion. The objective of this audit was to review the ATO's administration of penalties, with particular emphasis on its corporate governance framework and issues relating to consistency, effectiveness and accountability of penalty administration. In particular, the audit examined the administration of two penalty types, Late Lodgement and Tax Shortfall, as case studies.

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.

The objective of the audit was to assess whether the controls employed by the Department of Family and Community Services (FACS) and Centrelink to ensure the correctness of payments made under the Age Pension program were effective and efficient. The ANAO focused on:

• business arrangements between FACS and Centrelink and the Business Assurance Framework;
• whether the source of error was correctly attributed in customer records assessed by FACS and Centrelink as containing an error in the 2000-01 Age Pension Random Sample Survey:
• the correctness of Centrelink's processing of reassessments, including Pensioner Entitlements Reviews, Customer Initiated Reassessments and automated reassessments: and
• progress in implementing the recommendations of previous ANAO audits concerning the preventive quality controls that underpin correct payments.

This is the second year of what may be a three-year longitudinal study of the effectiveness and efficiency of all aspects of people management in 13 agencies, covering some 36% of APS employees. The study assessed each people management practice area against four criteria: quality, HR integration, effectiveness & efficiency and business contribution.

The audit objective was to form an opinion on the Department of Veterans' Affairs administration of its activities to maintain and enhance the health and independence of veterans and war widows in their homes and in the community.

This follow-up audit reviewed the operations of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) which is responsible for ensuring the sustainable use and efficient management of Commonwealth fisheries resources. The objective of this follow-up audit was to assess the extent to which AFMA addressed the issues that gave rise to the recommendations of ANAO Report No.32 1995-96, and the related recommendations of the House of Representatives Standing Committee Report 1997, that were supported by the Government.

The follow-up audit focussed on the key issues identified in the recommendations and grouped these in the themes of:

• strategic and performance management;
• management of the advisory process;
• implementation of fisheries management methods;
• managing AFMA's environmental responsibilities as they relate to Commonwealth fisheries
  management;
• compliance, monitoring and enforcement responsibilities; and
• management of information and research.