Page 1558 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2007
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The theme of the conference was “challenges facing contemporary public accounts committees”. The Hon David Hawker MP, Speaker of the House of Representatives, opened the conference. The conference then proceeded with a number of keynote addresses and the presentation of papers covering four themes. The first was the relationship between the public accounts committees and the executive: ensuring that public accounts committees are able to access independent and reliable information—this, for example, can encompass how PACs deal with claims of public interest immunity by public sector agencies; the role of PACs in enhancing public sector reporting standards, including performance reporting in the public sector; and how PACs ensure that their recommendations are implemented.
The second was the impact of devolution of financial, project and risk management in public sector agencies, which addressed how PACs, together with central agencies and auditors-general, can encourage better practice in contract management and risk management compliance with financial frameworks as responsibility is devolved to individual agencies.
The third was the role of auditors-general and PACs as government functions are outsourced to the private sector. In this area we addressed the issue of public-private partnership models to fund major infrastructure and how to ensure an appropriate balance between risk and reward in PPPs, and adequate scrutiny by auditors-general and parliaments of contract management and project delivery.
The fourth was the matter of the relationship between PACs and the auditors-general, and the topics addressed included the appropriate role of PACs in reviewing the work program of audit offices, and the role of PACs in safeguarding the independence of auditors-general.
The keynote addresses and papers presented were informative, varied and of current interest to those working to promote and ensure strong and effective public sector reporting standards and professional accountability. As part of the paper presentations, I presented a paper about the powers of public accounts committees to set their own work program and the subsequent influence on their resources. The paper highlighted and discussed that public accounts committees have substantial powers to set their own work program. However, the extent to which theses powers are fully utilised is significantly influenced by both committee and institutional capacity.
Worthy of note were the following: a keynote address from Professor Kerry Jacobs on behalf of La Trobe University’s public sector governance and accountability research centre; and Tom Moloney from KPMG, providing a summary of the recently published report The parliamentary public accounts committee: an Australian and New Zealand perspective. This address presented the results of a baseline study conducted by La Trobe University and KPMG aiming to identify the range of structures, responsibilities and working practices adopted by public accounts committees across Australia and New Zealand. The committee commends the report to those interested in understanding the nature and work of PACs in Australia and New Zealand.
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