Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (19 November) . . Page.. 3719 ..

MRS CARNELL: Welcome back, Mr Whitecross. Have you had a nice trip? Obviously, you would not be really up to speed, because you have been away for a while.

Mr Whitecross: You would be surprised.

MRS CARNELL: I was being very pleasant. Mr Whitecross said that the Auditor-General has prepared a report. Certainly, I have seen no report produced by the Auditor-General, but I can address a couple of the issues that you addressed. Has that report been tabled in the Assembly, Mr Whitecross?

Mr Whitecross: Have you seen it? It is your department.

MRS CARNELL: Has it been tabled? The fact is that it has not been tabled. The Chief Minister's Department did seek an extension for its annual report and it was granted an extension, as many departments are, and produced its annual figures inside that extension.

Mr Whitecross raised the issue of reconciliation of the daily balance. Mr Whitecross, just turn around and ask Ms Follett about this. She will tell you that it has never been done since self-government, but this year we came very close - in fact, much closer than ever before. Ms Follett will know that every year the Treasury, under Ms Follett as Treasurer, had its accounts qualified. One of the reasons was that they could not reconcile their daily accounts. Ms Follett was Treasurer under those circumstances. Mr Whitecross, as you can see, this year the Chief Minister's Department and therefore Treasury, did not have their accounts qualified. I understand that it is probably the first year that that has happened. I think that was a pretty impressive exercise, because it certainly showed that they had moved ahead quite significantly from the past.

MR WHITECROSS: I ask a supplementary question, Mr Speaker. Mrs Carnell has given us a history lesson about Ms Follett's time in government but has not actually answered the question. I would invite her to answer the question. I would invite her also to explain how the ACT Chief Minister's Department, which employs some very highly paid consultants and some of the best-paid senior executives in Canberra, most of whom are subject to performance agreements, failed so badly in their performance and what action she is taking, in the light of these failures of performance, to review whether they are meeting their obligations under their performance agreements.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, if the Auditor-General did not qualify the accounts of Chief Minister's, which he did not, then they did not fail. It is that simple. As I have said before in this place, the chief executive of Chief Minister's does have a performance contract, as do all of the other executives. They report against those - and, interestingly, very successfully. Mr Speaker, again I say that the accounts from Chief Minister's were not qualified, unlike in previous years. I think that shows that things are improving. We can always get better, Mr Speaker, but is it not good that we are getting better?

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .