Page 2169 - Week 07 - Thursday, 7 August 2014
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General Act 1996 that came into effect on 20 February 2014, and those changes modernised the act; implemented a number of public accounts committee recommendations, including provisions to reinforce the independence of the Auditor-General; and enhanced arrangements for this function. A range of new consultation requirements were also part of those amendments.
The Chief Minister presented the bill in June and it will clarify consultation requirements in two important regards. The 14-day consultation requirement will only apply to one version of the draft report provided to an auditee for consultation, and the Auditor-General will only need to provide an organisation with the parts of a report that are relevant to it.
These changes are important in ensuring the effectiveness and productivity of the work of the Auditor-General and maintaining probity on sensitive information while ensuring auditees are appropriately consulted on matters relevant to them. The first three clauses of the bill are standard preliminary clauses and include specification of the date of commencement. The new act will commence the day after notification. The government has given priority to early consideration of the bill in order to ensure that the Auditor-General can carry out her 2014 work program in a timely way.
Clause 4 replaces existing text with revised text and achieves the main goals of this bill. The 2013 changes to the act introduced new consultation requirements for certain Auditor-General reports to be tabled in the Assembly. These provisions required the Auditor-General to provide auditees drafts of the report and allow them 14 days for comment. However, the requirements applied every time the Auditor-General provides draft text. The Auditor-General’s preferred approach is to consult iteratively on reports, ensuring the timely completion of these reports. This provision can, of course, lead to a significant increase in the time required to finalise the audits. The current bill therefore clarifies that the new 14-day consultation provision only applies to one identified draft consultation report.
The bill also enhances probity aspects of the consultation requirements. Some reports prepared by the Auditor-General audit the work of more than one organisation. The bill will ensure that the Auditor-General only needs to provide those parts of a draft report that are relevant to an organisation. This would be important in cases where a draft report includes sensitive material about an auditee that should not be provided to third parties before the report is provided to the Assembly.
In conclusion, this amendment bill further enhances and supports the Auditor-General’s critical role in ensuring the good governance of the territory, and I thank colleagues for their support of the bill.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
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