The purpose of Insights: Audit Opinion is to provide the Auditor-General's views on key issues facing the Australian public sector. This inaugural edition is on the topic of the Commonwealth Performance Framework and how it can be better used to drive effectiveness in the Australian public sector. This includes the need to prioritise the improvement of performance frameworks, embed a performance culture and use performance information to drive business improvement.

The Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (PID Act) came into effect on 15 January 2014. The purpose of the Public Interest Disclosure Scheme is to provide an avenue for public officials to report suspected wrong doing in the Australian public sector.

The scheme provides for employees (including former employees) of the ANAO and contracted service providers to the ANAO, to make a public interest disclosure of suspected wrongdoing relating to any public official, and provides for any public officials and former public officials to make a public interest disclosure of suspected wrongdoing relating to ANAO activities or ANAO officials, either anonymously or openly, in writing or verbally, to an authorised officer in the ANAO. The ANAO has an obligation to assess the disclosure and decide whether to investigate the matter or not.

If you are considering making a disclosure that relates to a current ANAO audit, seek assistance from an authorised officer in the first instance by sending an email to pid@anao.gov.au with the subject 'Advice regarding [audit name]'. An authorised officer can assist you to assess whether your matter may be an audit contribution (for example, you believe that an audit team has been provided with misleading information) and can explain the confidentiality provisions for information gathered as part of an ANAO audit.

The objective of the audit was to assess the administrative effectiveness of the CCAS. The audit focused on the following key areas: targeting non-compliance; real time compliance activity; post transaction compliance activity; and planning and performance evaluation. As the imports phase of the Integrated Cargo System (ICS) was only introduced in October 2005, this system was not reviewed as part of the audit. Our audit programme for 2005–06 includes ICS as a potential audit topic.

Recent performance audit priority for the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) in the Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government portfolio has been directed at the administration of funding for land transport. Accordingly, this audit is one of a series ANAO is undertaking of land transport funding programs. Four audits have already been completed, namely:

• ANAO Audit Report No. 31 2005–06, Roads to Recovery;
• ANAO Audit Report No. 45 2006–07, The National Black Spot Program;
• ANAO Audit Report No. 22 2007–08, Administration of Grants to the Australian Rail Track Corporation; and
• ANAO Audit Report No. 29 2008–09, Delivery of Projects on the AusLink National Network.

The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of the actions taken by AQIS and BA to strengthen the administration of quarantine. The audit focussed on progress in implementing the recommendations from the previous ANAO audit, and recommendations made in the JCPAA's inquiry. (The audit did not address four JCPAA recommendations that were either not supported by the Government, or were policy matters for the Government to consider. See Appendix 1.)

The objective of this audit was to determine whether selected Australian Government organisations had effective processes for managing the annual leave entitlements of their staff, and whether systems and controls over the processing of annual leave were working as intended. In addressing this objective, the audit also assessed progress being made by the audited organisations in implementing the recommendations in ANAO Audit Report No.16 2005-06.

This audit is a part of the ANAO's protective security audit coverage. The objective of this audit was to determine whether agencies audited had developed and implemented sound IT security management principles and practices supported by an IT security control framework, in accordance with Australian Government policies and guidelines. The audit at each agency examined the framework for the effective management and control of IT security, including the management of IT operational security controls and, where applicable, was based on the Australian Government protective security and information and communications technology (ICT) security guidelines that were current at that time.

The objective of the audit was to assess the Commonwealth's administration of the grants component of the R&D Start program. Lessons for the new Commercial Ready program have been identified in the audit. Accordingly, recommendations arising from this audit are directed, when appropriate, to the Commercial Ready program. As most financial assistance is in the form of grants, the loans component of the program was excluded from the audit.