The objective of the audit was to assess whether:

a) the AGD effectively manages the operation of the NSH; and
b) the AFP and ASIO have effective procedures in place to deal with incoming referrals from the NSH.

The audit objective was to assess whether agreements between Australian Government (Commonwealth) agencies reflect sound administrative practices. To meet this objective, the audit reviewed current government policy and a range of better practice guidelines, conducted interviews with agencies and examined cross-agency agreements, to formulate suitable audit criteria and subsequently develop better practice principles.

The objective of the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) was to examine and report on the planning and corporate governance for the new regional delivery model of the National Action Plan for Salinity and Water Quality (NAP) program, jointly administered by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Department of the Environment and Heritage (the Agencies)

The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the selection, implementation, operation and monitoring of FRCs by AGD and FaHCSIA. The three main criteria for this audit assessed whether AGD and FaHCSIA had effectively:

• planned and implemented the FRC initiative, including the FRC selection and funding processes;
• undertaken administration activities to guide the operation and progress of the FRC initiative towards meeting its objectives; and
• monitored, evaluated and reported on the performance of FRCs.

Mr P.J. Barrett (AM) - Auditor-General for Australia, presented at the 2nd Taipai Corporate Governance Forum

The audit reviewed whether DEWR is efficiently and effectively managing the provision of entitlements to eligible former employees under the Employee Entitlements Support Scheme (EESS) and its replacement, the General Employee Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS). The audit sought to determine whether DEWR had a mechanism to ensure that claims were properly assessed, taking into account the prevailing risks, whether performance information was adequate, whether relationships with claimants and insolvency practitioners were managed appropriately and whether a cost-effective recovery strategy was in place.

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 the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the Tax Office's compliance approach for high risk income tax refunds in the individuals and micro enterprises market segments. The audit examined three key areas:

• management and organisational arrangements relating to high risk income tax refund processes;

• processes and procedures for identifying high risk income tax refunds, and the processes and tools used to evaluate and verify taxpayers' entitlements to income tax refunds; and

• information technology systems, processes and controls supporting the processing of income tax returns and refunds.

The objectives of the audit were to:

• review the implementation arrangements in relation to the transfer of the delivery of AUSTUDY to Centrelink and its subsequent inclusion as part of the Youth Allowance; and
• to form an opinion on the efficiency and effectiveness of the front-end processing aspects of AUSTUDY applications.

The objective of this audit was to assess the administration of internal fraud control arrangements in the ATO and to identify areas with potential for improvement as well as identified better practice. To achieve this objective the ANAO focussed on five key areas. These were:

• the application of the ATO's corporate governance processes to the internal fraud control activities;
• the prevention of internal fraud within the ATO;
• the related use of information technology to minimise fraud risks;
• the detection of internal fraud within the ATO; and
• ATO fraud investigation procedures and practices.