The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the Department of the Environment’s regulation of proponents’ compliance with Part 9 of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.

The objective of this audit was to assess ARPANSA's management of the regulation of Commonwealth radiation and nuclear activities to ensure the safety of their radiation facilities and sources.

The objectives of this performance audit were to provide assurance that there were effective measures in place to safeguard the national collections and that institutions had processes in place to provide access to them. The ANAO also examined the extent to which the national cultural institutions have implemented the eleven recommendations from the previous report, Safeguarding Our National Collections (Audit Report No.8 1998-99).

The objective of the audit was to examine Defence's management of leases that have resulted from property sale and leaseback transactions. Leases subject to review were for a period of ten or more years and included the following six properties: the Defence Plazas in Sydney and Melbourne; the Hydrographic Office Wollongong; DNSDC Moorebank; Campbell Park Offices in Canberra; and ADC Weston Creek in Canberra. The audit examined the process for identifying the properties for sale and leaseback and the sale approval process. The audit sought to determine the basis on which the properties were proposed for sale and leaseback and the financial impact for the Government. The audit also reviewed the lease terms and conditions to determine whether they protect the Government's interests, and examined Defence's management of commitments arising from the leases.

The audit examined the effectiveness of DEEWR's administrative arrangements supporting the delivery of Indigenous childcare services through MACS and crèches, including the approaches DEEWR uses to monitor the achievement of the BBF sub-program objective.

In conducting the audit, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) reviewed three key areas:

• program administration—DEEWR's administrative systems and processes supporting the delivery of Indigenous childcare services through MACS and crèches and the broader BBF sub-program;
• management of service provider funding agreements—DEEWR's systems and processes for managing MACS and crèche service providers' funding agreements; and
• monitoring and reporting performance—the effectiveness of DEEWR's processes for monitoring the performance of service providers, and the achievement of the outputs and outcomes of the BBF sub-program.

The ANAO sought not to duplicate the work of DEEWR's Internal Audit function, and in doing so referred to the findings of the recent internal audit review of the CCSSP, where these were relevant and appropriate.

The objective of the audit was to determine whether the controls and measures employed by FaCS and Centrelink to deliver Parenting Payment Single (PPS) payments were effective and efficient. To achieve this, the audit focused on four key areas. These were:

• the quality of performance measures used by FaCS and Centrelink;
• the effectiveness of FaCS' methodology for estimating the levels of risk of incorrect payment to PPS customers and the impact of these incorrect payments on the integrity of program outlays;
• the correctness of Centrelink's processing of reassessments; and
• the improvements to preventive controls such as training, guidance material, and the Quality On-Line system.

Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presented to the PA Congress 1997:'CPAs for Today and Tomorrow', Adelaide

The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO’s) complaints and other feedback management systems in supporting service delivery.

The audit objective was to assess the effectiveness of the Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA) application of the Code of Good Manufacturing Practice (Code of GMP) for prescription medicines.

The audit reviewed the Australian Customs Service (Customs) fraud control arrangements. The audit objective was to assess whether Customs has implemented appropriate fraud control arrangements consistent with the Commonwealth's Fraud Control Guidelines and the administrative effectiveness of these arrangements.