Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford released a report on the planning and environment cluster today, concluding that the quality of financial reporting is improving. However, the cluster can improve its financial controls and governance framework.

Financial reporting within the Transport Cluster continues to improve with reported misstatements down 96 per cent since 2011-12 to just three in 2015-16, according to a report released today by the NSW Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford.

Transport for NSW did not effectively plan and procure the CBD and South East Light Rail (CSELR) project to achieve best value for money according to a report released today by NSW Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford.

Transport for NSW is on track to deliver the project, but it will come at a higher cost with lower benefits than in the approved business case.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #278 - released 30 November 2016

New South Wales has a lower rate of foodborne illness than the national average. This reflects some good practices in the NSW Food Authority’s approach to monitoring food safety standards. It also is a factor of the long-standing commitment by local councils’ to ensuring retail food businesses meet these standards.

To ensure foodborne illness remains low, the Authority needs to better monitor its arrangements with councils which inspect retail food businesses on its behalf, and receive additional and more timely information from councils on compliance with food safety standards.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #274 - released 15 September 2016

Since our performance audit in 1995 the government has improved guidance for agencies and introduced a more robust framework for approving advertising campaigns. Greater rigour has been introduced into the process by requiring campaigns to be peer reviewed and approved by Cabinet. This new approach aims to improve the effectiveness and value for money of government advertising. We found however that the current guidelines are not adequate to prevent the use of public funds for party political purposes. We also found it difficult to obtain information on the total amount spent on advertising campaigns. This is because there is no central record of the total expenditure, only the cost of placing advertisements in the media. Greater transparency around what is spent would support more accurate and informed debate.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #171 - released 29 August 2007

SDRO deals well with very high volumes and collects substantial sums of money. However, there are a number of factors which limit the effectiveness of the fine enforcement process and affect SDRO’s capacity to recover debt. SDRO is confronted with conflicting roles as both law enforcer and debt collector. As a law enforcement agency, SDRO treats all matters the same. But as a debt collector, other approaches could be pursued which would recover more outstanding dollars.

Many of the factors which inhibit SDRO’s ability to collect unpaid fines are beyond its control and require legislative change or a coordinated inter-agency response. Until these problems are fixed, the credibility of the fine enforcement process, and people’s willingness to pay outstanding fines, will continue to be undermined.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #94 - released 17 April 2002