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Reports

Published

Actions for Mental health post-discharge care

Mental health post-discharge care

Health
Internal controls and governance
Service delivery

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

Published

Actions for Volume Twelve 2015 Part One Trade & Investment and TAFE

Volume Twelve 2015 Part One Trade & Investment and TAFE

Planning
Education
Asset valuation
Compliance
Financial reporting
Information technology
Internal controls and governance
Project management
Risk

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 e

Published

Actions for Volume Eleven 2015 Education and Communities

Volume Eleven 2015 Education and Communities

Education
Community Services
Information technology
Internal controls and governance
Project management
Risk

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.

Published

Actions for Volume Ten 2015 Health

Volume Ten 2015 Health

Health
Information technology
Internal controls and governance
Project management
Risk

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 pa

Published

Actions for Volume Seven 2015 Part One Law and Order

Volume Seven 2015 Part One Law and Order

Justice
Information technology
Internal controls and governance
Project management
Risk

Many factors are contributing to the overcrowding of the NSW prison system. This is in turn putting pressure on operations in the courts, and could ultimately impact rates of reoffending. The lack of capacity is impacting more than just the NSW prison system. Over the weekend of 31 October 2015 some inmates held by the NSW Police Force could not be brought before a court because of capacity shortages. This was one of the findings reported in Volume Sev

Published

Actions for Volume Seven 2015 Part Two Emergency Services

Volume Seven 2015 Part Two Emergency Services

Justice
Information technology
Internal controls and governance
Project management
Risk

Demand for emergency services increased by eight per cent, in response to 187,282 incidents during 2014-15. Total volunteer numbers have risen over the last three years by 2.4 per cent to 98,536, improving capacity to deal with such incidents. NSW Rural Fire Service had only five emergency declarations in 2014-15 compared to 48 the year before, resulting in natural disaster expenditure falling by $89.0 million.   Fire and Rescue NSW response time to

Published

Actions for Activity based funding data quality

Activity based funding data quality

Health
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration

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&nbsp

Published

Actions for Identifying productivity in the public sector

Identifying productivity in the public sector

Health
Education
Community Services
Transport
Justice
Treasury
Whole of Government
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration

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

Published

Actions for Implementing performance audit recommendations

Implementing performance audit recommendations

Premier and Cabinet
Treasury
Whole of Government
Health
Education
Community Services
Transport
Justice
Compliance
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration

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 ag

Published

Actions for Large construction projects

Large construction projects

Treasury
Transport
Health
Industry
Planning
Premier and Cabinet
Whole of Government
Compliance
Infrastructure
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Procurement
Project management

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