The audit objective was to assess the effectiveness of the Australian Taxation Office's processes for estimating and monitoring the costs, savings and benefits associated with the Reinventing the ATO program.

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.

The objective of the audit was to assess the management and effectiveness of DCO’s delivery and coordination of support services to ADF families, in particular support services provided when an ADF member is seriously injured or ill, or dies in service.

Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at the Association of Risk and Insurance Managers of Australasia - South Australia Chapter

The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency’s (TEQSA’s) regulation of higher education.

The audit reviewed the ATO's collection and management of activity statement information. The audit paid particular regard to:

• the environment into which activity statements were introduced;
• taxpayer concerns with activity statement administration;
• the mechanisms the ATO uses to capture and process activity statements;
• the change processes the ATO uses to change and test activity statement IT systems; and
• the management methodology used to report on, and assess the performance of, activity statement related systems and processes.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) established a task force in 1996 to develop a greater understanding of the factors involved and to devise a coordinated approach in dealing with the cash economy. The objective of the performance audit was to report to Parliament on the ATO's progress in addressing the cash economy, including its monitoring and reporting of outcomes. The audit focused on the ATO's implementation of its Cash Economy Task Force recommendations in the light of the tax reform that has taken place over the last two years.

The audit objective is to assess the effectiveness of the Department of Agriculture’s administration of the Imported Food Inspection Scheme.

Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at the CPA Australia National Public Sector Convention, Perth

The audit objective was to assess the effectiveness of the administration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation targets in intergovernmental funding agreements in achieving policy objectives.