Page 2370 - Week 11 - Thursday, 2 November 1989
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Legal Aid Office, which are budget dependent statutory authorities. The committee considers that, as these agencies receive a very significant amount of appropriated funds and are not commercial enterprises, they should be subject to the same level of accountability as departments. The committee has recommended that the status of these four agencies should be changed to that of a department. I understand that processes are in hand for that, and the committee looks forward to seeing the development of that in the future.
The committee was also concerned about the number of statutory authorities, both budget dependent and non-budget dependent, that exist in the ACT. The committee has recommended that a review should be taken by the Public Accounts Committee of such bodies.
Many of us, I think, will recall the concern in the other place in relation to the proliferation of quangos, and there was a considerable investigation into that by the Federal committee which led to some considerable changes. I think we all realise that, in the process leading up to self-government, the affairs of the ACT were being run mainly by a series of statutory authorities because there was only one Minister - in some cases two - responsible for the affairs of the ACT. So that practice was allowed to develop, and I think now it is appropriate, with self-government, that we should look at that in some detail.
The committee also examined the feasibility of incorporating the revenue and expenditure of the community development fund in the consolidated fund, but concluded that this could lead to a proportion of gambling revenue no longer being tied to community expenditure.
The committee has recommended that, commencing in 1990-91, an additional budget paper should be prepared on the community development fund which would show details of revenue and a detailed break-up of expenditure. This would enable the Assembly and its committees to scrutinise the activities of the fund. I will be making some comments in relation to one area of interest later on in my remarks.
The committee made a number of comments and recommendations relating to a number of programs contained in the budget, and other committee members, I am sure, will comment on these. The following comments, however, are of a general nature relating to the overall process. I think it is appropriate now that I should comment on some of the general recommendations.
Let me refer to cross-agency transfers. Throughout the Appropriation Bill, there were items titled "agency services" with a net appropriation of $1,000. The committee was concerned, at the time of the Estimates Committee hearings, that no method of reporting had been established to advise the Assembly on the use of this mechanism for cross-agency transfers. We note that the
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