Page 4211 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 29 November 1994
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The Budget Performance and Outcomes Committee was also severely constrained by the lack of financial information available on a subprogram basis, as is identified in recommendation 1. In fact, it could be argued that the committee was able to perform only half of its task, as the financial information provided was not able to be directly compared with the earlier financial information made available to the Estimates Committee.
Madam Speaker, as I have already addressed one of the recommendations of the committee, I would like to address each of the following recommendations in turn and comment briefly on a number of the 69 issues commented on in the body of the report. It would seem obvious that annual reports, when presented to the Assembly, should be correct in every detail at presentation, given the almost three-month period between the end of the financial year and the requirement to table reports. Unfortunately, this was not the case; and a number of agencies provided to committee members additional copies of annual reports with numbered pages, where the tabled reports had unnumbered pages, or with additional presentation of details. Given that agency annual reports were the committee's major source of information about agency performance, members had obviously read and annotated the annual reports tabled in the Assembly, anticipating them to be the final product. It is simply not good enough that incomplete agency annual reports are tabled in this Assembly and are considered adequate to assist committee members in their tasks.
Recommendation 3 reiterates the recommendation of the 1994-95 Estimates Committee and all estimates committees since self-government. I look forward to the day when a committee of this Assembly considers it unnecessary to comment on the adequacy of agency performance indicators. I will return to recommendation 4, as it discusses future processes to review government performance. Recommendation 5 both reiterates previous recommendations of estimates committees in relation to the 2 per cent savings and affirms a need that, where percentage savings are identified to be made by future governments, they be fully accounted for and documented. Recommendation 9 is in a similar vein. Recommendations 6, 7 and 8 address specific issues which arise in the report, calling for a review of compulsory training for justices of the peace and of diversionary conferencing and drawing attention to the very important issue of the need to prepare adequately for the introduction of the mandatory reporting of child abuse by providing the necessary staff and facilities to cope with the anticipated increase in notifications.
Madam Speaker, other issues worthy of attention by government include the need appropriately to introduce both accrual budgeting and accrual accounting at the earliest opportunity; the need to avoid the receipt of audited statements qualified by the Auditor-General; and the need to develop consistency in the presentation of budget papers and annual reports. In some instances, the committee was pleased to note progress made by agencies in response to issues raised during the Estimates Committee hearings and commented on in the Estimates Committee report. These included the development of guidelines to be made available to expanding or relocating businesses seeking government assistance, which is commented on at page 10 of the committee's report. There are other issues I could comment on, Madam Speaker.
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