Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, address to the Department of Environment and Heritage - Sustainability Reporting by the Public Sector

The Department of the Treasury (Treasury) manages Australia's relations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and various development banks, including those belonging to the World Bank Group. The audit examined Treasury's management of these obligations. In view of the size of Australia's investments and obligations, the audit focussed on financial management issues.

The audit was conducted as a joint financial statement and performance audit of HIC's IT systems. The objective of the financial statement component of the audit was to express an opinion on whether HIC could rely on its IT systems to support production of a reliable set of balances for the financial statements. The objective of the performance audit component was to determine whether HIC's IT systems' outputs met quality and service delivery targets.

Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at the CPA Congress '96 - Profit from our Experience - Melbourne

The objectives of the audit were to: assess the effectiveness of the key evaluation methods used to review the efficacy of the Australian Government's national counter-terrorism coordination arrangements; and examine the effectiveness of the links between the key evaluation methods, and how the key evaluation methods contribute to the process of continuous improvement.

The objectives of the audit were to provide assurance to Parliament concerning the adequacy of Commonwealth security planning and preparations for the Games and to identify areas for improvement early enough for any corrective action to be taken.

Mr Ian McPhee - Auditor-General for Australia, address to the Risk Management Institution of Australasia -ACT Chapter Conference 'Building on Experience'

The audit assessed whether Centrelink has effective Business Continuity Management and/or associated risk management procedures and plans in place that: minimise the likelihood of a significant business outage; and in the event of such an outage, minimise disruption of critical services to customers. The audit also assessed whether Centrelink services satisfy special community demands in times of emergency.

Government service delivery through the Internet presents both significant opportunities and challenges in the delivery of on-line services. Depending on the level of sophistication of the application, the Internet allows Commonwealth agencies to publish information, interact with clients in the exchange of information, and/or transact business electronically. The over-all objective of this audit was to determine Commonwealth agencies' preparedness to achieve the Government's goal of all appropriate services being Internet-deliverable by 2001. The audit sought to assess:

• the extent to which agencies considered that they would be able to achieve that goal;
• what type of services agencies were delivering or planning to deliver on the Internet; and
• whether agencies had identified barriers and possible solutions to that delivery.

This audit was a follow-on to Audit Report No.21 1997-98 Protective Security, which reviewed, among other things, information security other than computer and communications security, against the policy and procedures outlined in the 1991 PSM. That audit found inconsistencies in the identification and marking of classified information and weaknesses in the handling and storage of classified information, as well as other breakdowns impacting on information security.