Observation |
Conclusion or recommendation |
Quality of financial reporting |
Unqualified opinions were issued for all agencies’ financial statements. |
Unqualified audit opinions were issued on the 2016–17 financial statements of all agencies in the Transport cluster. Agencies complied with the new disclosure requirements required under accounting standard AASB 124 'Related Party Disclosures'. |
Old tunnels and earthworks valued. |
The cluster corrected the value of rail tunnels and earthworks by recording an additional $8.5 billion in infrastructure assets. |
Timeliness of financial reporting |
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Most agencies complied with the statutory timeframes for completion of early close procedures and preparation and audit of financial statements. |
Early close procedures continue to facilitate timely preparation of financial statements and completion of audits, but agencies can make further improvement in the revaluation process. |
TfNSW and RailCorp completed asset revaluations after the early close deadline. |
While all revaluation matters were resolved and corrected, completing the revaluation process earlier would enable more timely review, identification and resolution of matters. |
Passenger revenue, patronage and cost recovery |
Revenue increased by 7 per cent at a similar rate to patronage. |
Public transport passenger revenue increased by $93 million (seven per cent) in 2016–17, and patronage increased by 49 million (seven per cent) across all modes of transport. There were some changes in the method of calculating reported patronage between 2015–16 and 2016–17. If the methods had been consistent, the patronage increase would be 6.5 per cent. Opal fare structure changes came into effect on 5 September 2016. |
Value of negative balance Opal Cards doubled since last year. |
There was $2.6 million in revenue not collected during 2016–17 financial year through negative balance Opal Cards. This represents 0.2 per cent of total annual passenger revenue. Transport advise the cumulative balance of negative balance Opal Cards is $4.2 million as at 30 June 2017.
Recommendation: TfNSW should implement measures to prevent the loss of revenue from passengers tapping off with negative balance Opal cards.
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The overall cost recovery from users of public transport increased slightly to 21.3 per cent. |
Cost of service per passenger journey for buses and ferries decreased. Revenue per passenger journey for all modes remained fairly stable. |
Investment in infrastructure |
There was a significant investment in transport assets in 2016–17. |
Agencies spent $8.5 billion on assets in 2016–17, including $3.8 billion on rail systems and $3.8 billion on road and maritime infrastructure systems. |
Transport cluster have capital commitment of $11.3 billion over the next five years.
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The transport cluster has significant contractual commitments over the next five years on rail and road infrastructure projects.
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Internal controls
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User access administration over systems remains an area of weakness. |
We identified six moderate and eight low risk issues related to user systems access administration across four agencies. This included review of highly privileged/super user account transactions not performed effectively and user access reviews not performed. These weaknesses increase the risk of users having excessive or unauthorised access to critical financial systems and information. |