What this report is about Students in rural and remote areas of NSW face greater challenges compared to their metropolitan peers. This report examined how the NSW Department of Education (the department) is ensuring that rural and remote students have access to the same quality of early childhood, school education, and skills pathways as metropolitan students. What we found A decade since the previous (2013) strategy to address educational disadvanta

Effective radio communications are crucial to NSW's emergency services organisations. The Critical Communications Enhancement Program (CCEP) aims to deliver an enhanced public safety radio network to serve the five emergency services organisations (ESOs), as well as a range of other users. This report assesses whether the NSW Telco Authority is effectively managing the CCEP. What we found Where it has already been delivered

What this report is about This report draws together the financial impact of natural disasters on agencies integral to the response and impact of natural disasters during 2021–22. What we found Over the 2021–22 financial year $1.4 billion from a budget of $1.9 billion was spent by the NSW Government in response to natural disasters. Total expenses were less than the budget due to underspend in the following areas: clean-up assistance, including coun

What this report is about Results of the financial statement audits of the public universities in NSW for the year ended 31 December 2022. What we found Unmodified audit opinions were issued for all ten universities. Nine universities reported net deficits in 2022, and all showed a decline from their 2021 results. Results were impacted by a decline in investment income and government grants. Wage remediation provisions across the universities incre

An Easy English version of the report highlights will be here soon. If you need help to know what this report says, please call us on 02 9275 7100 or email mail@audit.nsw.gov.au What this report is about This audit assessed whether NSW Trustee and Guardian is effectively delivering public guardianship and financial management services in line with legislative requirements and standards. What we found NSW Trustee and Guardian is delivering guardiansh

This audit assessed the effectiveness of the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) and local councils in planning and managing equipment for bushfire prevention, mitigation, and suppression. What we found The RFS has focused its fleet development activity on modernising and improving the safety of its firefighting fleet, and on the purchase of new firefighting aircraft. There is limited evidence that the RFS has undertaken strategic f

The Bushfire Local Economic Recovery (BLER) program was created after the 2019–20 bushfires, and commits $541.8 million to bushfire affected areas in New South Wales. It is co-funded by the Commonwealth and NSW governments. This audit assessed how effectively the Department of Regional NSW (the department) and Resilience NSW administered rounds one and two of the BLER program. These rounds were: Round one: early co-funding, spl

The Transport Asset Holding Entity (TAHE) is the State's custodian of rail assets. It is a state owned corporation and commenced operating on 1 July 2020. This audit assessed the effectiveness of NSW Government agencies' design and implementation of TAHE. We audited TAHE, Transport for NSW (TfNSW) and NSW Treasury. Separate and related audits on TAHE are reported in 'State Finances 2022', 'State Finances 2021' and 'Transport a

Results of the Treasury cluster agencies' financial statement audits for the year ended 30 June 2022. The results of the audit of the NSW Government's consolidated Total State Sector Accounts (TSSA), which is prepared by NSW Treasury, are reported separately in our report on 'State Finances 2022'. What we found Unmodified audit opinions were issued on all 30 June 2022 general purpose financial statement audits. Qualified audit

This audit assessed the effectiveness of NSW Government agencies’ coordination of the response to COVID-19, with a focus on the Delta variant outbreak in the Dubbo and Fairfield Local Government Areas (LGA) between June and November 2021. We audited five agencies - the Department of Premier and Cabinet, NSW Health, the NSW Police Force, Resilience NSW and the Department of Customer Service. The audit also considered relevant pl