The quality of financial reporting in the Finance and Treasury cluster continues to improve with fewer reported misstatements over the last three years. The financial statements of all cluster agencies received unqualified audit opinions, except for the New South Wales Self Insurance Corporation.

All agencies in the NSW Premier and Cabinet cluster received unqualified audit opinions for the year ended 30 June 2014. Overall financial reporting has improved. Agencies submitted their financial statements earlier than last year and for the third year in a row there has been a reduction in the number of misstatements identified during audits.

NSW Government agencies with large landholdings need to better manage their contaminated sites.

When contaminated sites are reported to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) there are long delays in assessing the extent of contamination. The EPA also lacks the management controls to ensure that all significantly contaminated sites are actively monitored and key milestones for remediation are met.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #245 - released 10 July 2014

NSW government agencies are not making sufficient use of purchasing cards and EFTs to pay for goods and services. There are potential savings in processing costs of around $22 per transaction from purchasing cards and over $7 when using EFTs instead of cheques.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #243 - released 5 June 2014

Today the Auditor-General of New South Wales, Grant Hehir, released his Volume One Report to Parliament for 2014. The observations included in this report are designed to inform readers of common findings from the 2013 financial and performance audits so agencies and audit committees can use them to identify issues that may be relevant to their organisations.

The Environment Protection Authority’s expenditure for the financial year 2010/11 was $92 million - $76 million of this was for environment protection and regulation. The Office of Environment and Heritage and the Environment Protection Authority commenced 145 prosecutions for environmental offences and 106 were completed in the financial year 2010/11, down from the 134 prosecutions completed in 2009/10. Financial penalties for 2010/11 totalled $969,000 down from $1,403,000 in 2009/10. The average fine decreased from $10,468 in 2009/10 to $9,141 in 2010/11.

The audits of the New South Wales Government controlled superannuation entities financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2011 resulted in unmodified audit opinions within the Independent Auditor’s Reports. Findings show that Treasury should review the structure and number of public sector superannuation funds and consider whether efficiencies and cost savings could be achieved through consolidation.

A NSW Auditor General’s Report has found that the NSW Government and its agencies grossly underestimated the cost and number of people that would install systems under the Solar Bonus Scheme.

By October 2010, the estimated cost of the Scheme, if it continued the way it was going, would have reached $3.988 billion. More than ten times the original estimate of $362 million. In response to the increased cost, the gross tariff for new applicants was reduced from 60 to 20 cents reducing the estimated cost to $1.954 billion.

It was a statutory requirement that when 50 mega watts of installed capacity was reached, the Government would review the Scheme. By the time the review was completed the installed capacity had reached 101 mega watts.

There have been tangible improvements in the time it takes NSW Government agencies to engage consultants through the Government’s Prequalification Scheme. The Scheme was introduced in February 2008 to improve agencies’ procurement of consultants. More than 300 service providers have been prequalified and over $300 million worth of consultancy services have been provided. Ideally agencies should know what assignments each consultant has won, for what services, what their rates are and how well they have performed. Agencies should then be free to contact other agencies before engaging a consultant.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #216 - released 28 September 2011

Dangerous goods make up 10-15% of domestic freight and have potential to harm people, property and the environment. They include substances such as explosives, flammable liquids and gases, and oxidising agents. However, Government inspection programs were limited. The Office of Environment and Heritage carried out very few checks in the four years up to 2010, with no inspections made in the metropolitan area. This is despite Port Botany handling around 50,000 containers of dangerous goods per year. Statewide, only 303 inspections were made in 2009/10 and only 20 in 2008/09.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #212 - released 10 May 2011