Page 1955 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 16 June 1993
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I believe that the Government is properly and responsibly addressing the concerns of the Auditor-General. For example, the Chief Minister, in last year's budget statement, provided $4.8m over two years for a new human resource management system. A financial management committee chaired by the Treasury has overseen development of a comprehensive program of financial training which commenced in March this year, and training in the Fiscal financial system has been improved and courses are now provided, tailored to individual agencies' needs. The committee's report raises questions about the functionality and perceived shortcomings of the Fiscal system. As the Auditor-General points out, these concerns were identified by Treasury through an internal audit review - that is, the problem was identified in house and not by the Auditor-General.
Madam Speaker, I am confident that Treasury, more than anyone else, are aware of the system's shortcomings and are best placed to identify the solutions. From what I can see, Treasury have corrected most of the shortcomings identified, or proposed solutions are in the pipeline. These achievements to date include a program of modifications to Fiscal reporting in response to concerns raised by users; the establishment of a working party with a part-time senior project officer to develop a model chart of accounts for use by agencies; a series of workshops on budgeting which explained and demonstrated the way Fiscal can be used for budget formulation and monitoring; and the commencement of projects to assist agencies to utilise down-loaded data for developing management reports on personal computers.
The Auditor-General also took up the question raised in the internal Treasury review of the functionality of Fiscal to process credit card purchases and statements. Treasury advised the committee that there is greater scope for the automation by Fiscal of credit card transactions and that this is being investigated. I would like to inform the Assembly that Treasury have also taken four initiatives recently to minimise the effect of these commitments being omitted from systems. These are the drafting and circulation of a financial data dictionary which contains a widely accepted classification of formal and informal commitment; improved training in the Fiscal financial system, with courses now being provided tailored to individual agency needs; and the issuing of Treasury direction 27 in early July 1992 containing instructions on credit card usage. A plain English guide on the use of credit cards is also being devised by Treasury and an investigation has been initiated into the scope for greater automation by Fiscal of credit card transactions.
Madam Speaker, I commend this report to the Assembly. I thank the members who sat on this PAC Committee - Ms Ellis, who chaired the committee, Mr Moore, and Mrs Carnell from the Liberal Party. It was very interesting and I think we learnt a lot. One of the things I think we did learn from it is that people can make mistakes. They are not genuinely done. Consideration should be given to everybody in the field when it comes to severance or an overpayment to somebody who does not realise at the time that they are not entitled to it. I think the other side of the house would do well to remember that when it comes to people such as bus drivers, ACTEW workers and ambulance drivers. Not always does the person who receives the extra pay understand that they have no right to it. As the Auditor-General said in the case of Mr Cornwell, it was not known; the law was not explained properly. I think we should remember that.
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