The Audit Office has recently completed a performance audit of the information published in the annual reports of eight public sector agencies. Although there is much guidance material on preparing annual reports, the performance audit found that the quality of published performance information in annual reports often falls short of what is considered best practice.

The aim of this Guide is to assist agencies to prepare annual reports that provide performance information that demonstrates accountability for the expenditure of public monies.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #77 - released 29 November 2000

Agencies have made some notable attempts to nominate objectives and define measures of performance and report against them each year. However, the quality of the performance information varies and in most cases falls short of what is accepted as best practice. The result is diminished accountability, transparency and openness.

Agencies still have problems reporting outcomes and results and frequently regress to reporting activities and plans. Few annual reports discussed setbacks and failures (particularly in the same detail as successes) or compared performance to goals or targets. And none of the agencies benchmarked their achievements against the results of operators in other jurisdictions or the private sector.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #76 - released 29 November 2000

There have been notable changes in the provision of emergency department services over the last decade, principally by increasing the number, seniority and training of staff and upgrading facilities. More recently, programs have focussed on achieving improvements in emergency department waiting times (the time taken to see a doctor) and access block (delay in accessing a hospital bed). However, these programs have had limited effect. Although waiting times for seriously ill patients have decreased, waiting times for around 95% of emergency department patients have increased or remain unchanged and performance against benchmarks for access block has declined each year.

Although The Audit Office identified opportunities to improve patient flow in the emergency department, benefits will be limited by access block and the congestion caused by being unable to move patients to a ward. Only a better balance of resources between inpatient access programs (that is booked and emergency department patients) will bring about improvements in access block.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #72 - released 15 March 2000

The Audit Office is of the opinion that, whilst all universities have developed policies to manage POW and to protect IP rights, many of those polices are outdated and require urgent review. Many of them do not adequately protect the universities or provide adequate compensation for the use of their resources or their name. There also seems to be a lack of clarity for accountability to monitor and enforce the policy. Whilst greater attention seems to have been given to protect the intellectual property rights, which mainly arise as a consequence of research projects, there is a need to review and revisit those policies as well.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #71 - released 7 February 2000