This report will bring together findings and recommendations from our 2020–21 financial audits of local councils and will comment on financial reporting and performance, internal controls and governance, and areas of interest that are in focus during the conduct of our audits.

Coordination of Response to COVID-19 (auditees: NSW Health, NSW Police Force, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Department of Customer Service, Resilience NSW) This audit will assess the effectiveness of NSW Government agencies’ coordination of the COVID-19 response in selected LGAs (an “LGA of concern” and a regional LGA) after June 2021. We will address the audit objective with the following lines of inquiry: Line of Inquiry 1: Coordinated response