Page 3055 - Week 09 - Thursday, 21 September 2006
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portfolios, together. This is because the standing committee reports generally cover more than one minister and more than one portfolio and, in certain cases, issues raised in the reports apply to all departments and agencies.
As members will be aware, annual and financial reports are prepared by agencies in accordance with the Chief Minister’s Annual Report Directions and in accordance with the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act and the Financial Management Act. The government seeks to ensure that the directions and the acts are continually updated to reflect best practice and full accountability in accordance with government policy. In line with this approach, some of the issues raised in the reports have already been addressed in the 2006 annual report directions.
The standing committee made 29 recommendations. The government has agreed in full, in principle or in part to 15, and noted a further 12. Two recommendations are not agreed. I will touch briefly on the reasons for the government not agreeing to those two. The Standing Committee on Public Accounts recommended that quarterly actuarial assessments of superannuation liability be conducted and published for the Assembly.
The actuarial assessment of the ACT’s unfunded superannuation liability is a process that typically requires weeks of intensive actuarial assessment after the scheme administrator has provided scheme membership data. This is a sophisticated and expensive process. Moreover, a quarterly update would capture little more than membership changes. These alone would have only a marginal impact on the assessment.
The Standing Committee on Health and Disability recommended that data to enable comparison between financial years be included in tables provided in annual and financial reports. It is the government’s position that agencies report on a predetermined period. Annual report directions include reporting against budget outputs for only that year. I thank the standing committees for the efforts they have made in preparing their reports. I commend the government’s responses to the Assembly.
Paper
Mr Stanhope presented the following paper:
Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act, pursuant to subsection 14 (7)—Extension of time for presenting annual report 2005-2006—Statement of reasons—Rhodium Asset Solutions.
Financial Management Act—instrument
Paper and statement by minister
MR STANHOPE (Ginninderra—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Business and Economic Development, Minister for Indigenous Affairs and Minister for the Arts): For the information of members, I present:
Financial Management Act, pursuant to section 18A—Authorisation of Expenditure from the Treasurer’s Advance to the Chief Minister’s Department, including a statement of reasons, dated 15 September 2006.
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