Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at a Seminar on 'Financial Management and Electronic Government' Kuala Lumpur

The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of selected Commonwealth entities’ management of Senior Executive Service conflict of interest requirements.

The audit reviewed the management and recording of guarentees, warranties, indemnities and letters of comfort issued by the Commonwealth and also assessed action taken in the relation to the recommendations from ANAO Audit Report No. 47 1997-98. The objectives of the audit were to assess the extent of:

• improvement in agencies' management and monitoring of the Commonwealth's exposure to these instruments;
• changes in the size and nature of the exposure since 30 June 1997; and
• the approach of agencies to effective risk management and control of Commonwealth exposures to these instruments.

The audit objective was to assess how effectively the selected public sector entities manage risk.

The objective of the audit was to assess the Moorebank Intermodal Company’s achievement of value for money and management of probity in its operations and procurement activities.

In January 2000, the ANAO published a Better Practice Guide (BPG) Business Continuity Management, Keeping the wheels in motion (the Guide). The Guide established that the objective of Business Continuity Management (BCM) is to ensure the uninterrupted availability of all key business resources required to support essential (or critical) business activities. This is achieved by organisations building resilience (controls and redundancy) into business operations to prevent, or minimise, the likelihood of business continuity risks occuring and, also, developing plans that minimise the impact should they occur. The primary objective of this audit was to examine BCM arrangements across four Commonwealth organisations, to assess whether their existing BCM frameworks ( or frameworks under development) exhibit the principles espoused in the Guide. At the Commonwealth - wide level, the ANAO considered the continuing relevance of the principles presented in the Guide.

The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of DIAC’s management of the student visa program. Three key areas were examined in the audit: the processing of student visa applications; ensuring compliance with student visa conditions; and cooperation between DIAC and DEEWR.

The objective of the audit was to assess how well EMA is meeting its objective of providing national leadership in the development of measures to reduce risk to communities and manage the consequences of disasters.

The audit objective was to assess the effectiveness of physical security arrangements in selected Australian Government agencies, including whether applicable Australian Government requirements are being met.