Reports
Actions for Mental health post-discharge care
Mental health post-discharge care
On 17 December 2015 the NSW Acting Auditor-General, Tony Whitfield, released a report on the care that is provided to mental health patients in the first seven days after they are discharged from acute mental health units.
The audit examined models of care provided by five Local Health Districts: Northern NSW, Sydney, Western Sydney, Central Coast, and Murrumbidgee. The audit looked at how well these Local Health Districts implemented the Ministry of Health’s policy directive on the transfer of mental health patients from hospitals to the community.
Parliamentary reference - Report number #263 - released 17 December 2015
Actions for Volume Twelve 2015 Part One Trade & Investment and TAFE
Volume Twelve 2015 Part One Trade & Investment and TAFE
Serious system limitations prevented TAFE NSW from providing sufficient and appropriate evidence to support recorded student revenue of $477 million, student receivables and accrued income of $47.6 million and unearned revenue of $398 million.
These limitations resulted in:
- a qualified audit opinion being issued for TAFE NSW;
- delays in enrolling students;
- inability to fully reconcile cash balances;
- difficulties in reconciling student enrolments with revenues recorded in the financial statements;
- large volumes of manual processing.
Actions for Volume Eleven 2015 Education and Communities
Volume Eleven 2015 Education and Communities
The number of students enrolled in NSW public schools has increased by over 21,000 during the past five years taking total enrolments in 2014 to 763,698.
While growth in student numbers is concentrated in metropolitan Sydney, enrolments in Northern Sydney increased by 20 per cent in the past ten years.
Actions for Volume Ten 2015 Health
Volume Ten 2015 Health
NSW Health, on average, met the emergency department triage response time targets across all triage categories in 2014-15 for the second consecutive year. However, fewer health entities met all triage targets in 2014-15, according to a report released by the New South Wales Acting Auditor-General, Tony Whitfield.
NSW Health improved its emergency department treatment performance in 2014-15, but did not achieve its target of 81 per cent of patients being admitted, transferred or discharged within four hours of presenting. In 2014-15, the State average was 74.3 per cent compared to 73.9 per cent in 2013-14. Only five local health districts achieved the 81 per cent target in 2014-15.
Actions for Activity based funding data quality
Activity based funding data quality
NSW Health has adequate arrangements to ensure that the data it uses for activity based funding is of reasonable quality. Activity Based Funding (ABF) represented 75 per cent of the funds provided to Local Health Districts (LHDs) and Speciality Health Networks in 2013-14.
For ABF to work it requires detailed information about patient activity in health services and costs of providing care.
Parliamentary reference - Report number #261 - released 4 November 2015
Actions for Identifying productivity in the public sector
Identifying productivity in the public sector
This report examines selected areas of government activity to see if sufficient information was available to identify and assess changes in productivity. The areas examined were primary and secondary school public education, acute inpatient care in NSW public hospitals, CityRail, the NSW Police Force, and the NSW Local Court.
Productivity is commonly defined as the amount of output per unit of input.
Parliamentary reference - Report number #256 - released 16 July 2015
Actions for Efficiency and effectiveness in tax collection
Efficiency and effectiveness in tax collection
This performance audit looked at whether the Office of State Revenue was effective in collecting as much tax as it should, and at the lowest cost to the government.
The Office of State Revenue (OSR) plays a crucial role in collecting revenue for NSW Government. About one-third of the money spent on services like our public schools and public hospitals is collected by OSR. This is through NSW Government taxes like stamp duty on real estate and payroll tax.
Parliamentary reference - Report number #255 - released 25 June 2015
Actions for Implementing performance audit recommendations
Implementing performance audit recommendations
NSW Government agencies have sound processes for implementing performance audit recommendations in Auditor-General’s Reports to Parliament. There are many cases of good practice. For example, some agencies formed a steering committee and developed a detailed plan to implement recommendations. Another incorporated the implementation of recommendations into both its business plan and the work plans of individual officers who were managing projects. Most agencies also used their Audit and Risk Committees to monitor recommendations.
We found some cases where agencies can improve how they coordinate actions to address recommendations. Most agencies were not revisiting these actions to determine whether they remain appropriate.
Parliamentary reference - Report number #254 - released 24 June 2015
Actions for Large construction projects
Large construction projects
The independent assurance given to the NSW Government and sponsor agencies on the viability of large capital projects throughout their lifecycle is inadequate. Government policy is regularly not followed and not properly communicated to those responsible for implementing such policy.
This audit sought to test the effectiveness of the NSW capital project assurance system - which includes gateway reviews and reporting - but significant levels of non-compliance identified in our case studies prevented this. The NSW Commission of Audit also identified this issue in 2012. Gateway reviews are conducted by independent reviewers at key stages of a project’s life cycle and provide an independent assessment on a project’s readiness to proceed to the next stage.
Parliamentary reference - Report number #252 - released 7 May 2015
Actions for Areas of focus from 2014
Areas of focus from 2014