Page 2812 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 24 June 2009
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and elective surgery waiting lists. These are matters of immense importance to the community and they should not be treated lightly.
The role of the Auditor-General, the values of the Auditor-General, the mission and objectives of the office, are all clearly articulated within the annual reports, documents and also on her website and they are worth reflecting on. It is worth reflecting on what her role is to the community and what she does. It is to promote public accountability in the public administration of the territory, to audit annual financial statements of the territory and departments, and to conduct performance audits. These are immensely important roles.
I turn to the values of the audit office. First:
Independence: our views are impartial and objective.
And they should be, and they should remain so.
Integrity: we exhibit the highest standards of ethical behaviour.
Yes, we would agree with that.
Professionalism: our work reflects our commitment and is consistently of a high standard.
Yes, that is true.
Respect: we are trustworthy, honest and respectful in our dealings with stakeholders.
Learning and innovation: we continually seek improved ways of performing our work.
They are aspirations and values that we can commend. I refer you also to the Auditor-General’s mission and objectives, and I will, if I get time, refer to those later.
The independence of the audit office is an issue that is very much at stake and is in large part the subject of Mr Smyth’s bill. I refer you to the Auditor-General’s website, and it is through various pieces of legislation as well:
The Auditor-General is not subject to direction by the Executive or any Minister in the exercise of the functions of the Auditor-General.
That is worth bearing in mind in terms of Mr Stanhope’s comments, Mr Smyth’s bill that he introduced this morning and the motion that we are discussing here today.
A key part of this has arisen from the report into the ambulance services and also from the estimates committee review and report that was tabled about the resourcing. It is fair to say that it is a fairly small organisation; it is not a department. I have her organisation chart here. We have got 12 senior auditors, seven auditors and two corporate services officers. Her operating budget is $4.6 million a year and she employs around 30 staff. So this is not a huge organisation.
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