Reports
Actions for Health 2018
Health 2018
The Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford, released a report today on the New South Wales Health Cluster. The report focuses on key observations and findings from the most recent financial audits of thirty health entities in New South Wales. Unqualified audit opinions were issued for all health entities’ financial statements. However, assessing the fair value of health entities’ property, plant and equipment created challenges, particularly for local health
Actions for Internal Controls and Governance 2018
Internal Controls and Governance 2018
The Auditor-General for New South Wales Margaret Crawford found that as NSW state government agencies’ digital footprint increases they need to do more to address new and emerging information technology (IT) risks. This is one of the key findings to emerge from the second stand-alone report on internal controls and governance of the 40 largest NSW state government agencies. This report analys
Actions for State Finances 2018
State Finances 2018
Pursuant to the Public Finance and Audit Act 1983, I present my Report on State Finances 2018. I am pleased to once again report that I issued a clear audit opinion on the State’s consolidated financial statements. This demonstrates the Government’s focus on preparing high quality information on the State’s financial position and performance for use by stakeholders. However, there are two key areas I would like to see addressed to further support the p
Actions for Procurement and reporting of consultancy services
Procurement and reporting of consultancy services
Agencies need to improve their compliance with requirements governing the procurement of consultancy services. These requirements help agencies access procurement savings. Also, some agencies have under-reported consultancy fees in their annual reports for the 2016-17 financial year, according to a report released today by the Auditor-General for New South Wales, Margaret Crawford. The report examined twelve agencies' compliance with procurement and rep
Actions for HealthRoster benefits realisation
HealthRoster benefits realisation
The HealthRoster system is delivering some business benefits but Local Health Districts are yet to use all of its features, according to a report released today by the Auditor-General for New South Wales, Margaret Crawford. HealthRoster is an IT system designed to more effectively roster staff to meet the needs of Local Health Districts and other NSW health agencies. The NSW public heal
Actions for Managing risks in the NSW public sector: risk culture and capability
Managing risks in the NSW public sector: risk culture and capability
The Ministry of Health, NSW Fair Trading, NSW Police Force, and NSW Treasury Corporation are taking steps to strengthen their risk culture, according to a report released today by the Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford. 'Senior management communicates the importance of managing risk to their staff, and there are many examples of risk management being integrated into daily activities', the Auditor-General said. We did find that three of the agencies we e
Actions for Volume Eleven 2012 focusing on Health
Volume Eleven 2012 focusing on Health
One in three ambulance crews were delayed for longer than 30 minutes at hospital. Over the year these delays totalled 84,680 hours of lost time, up from 78,224 last year and 58,399 the year before. The longer ambulance crews are at hospitals the less time they are available to respond to the next emergency.
Actions for Volume One 2012 focusing on themes from 2011
Volume One 2012 focusing on themes from 2011
The following overview of audits from 2011 found agency restructures significantly impacted agency financial reporting processes, agencies are having difficulty establishing and enforcing compliance with their own policies and procedures, agencies experienced problems complying with regulations and providing adequate documentation to support their financial statements, the poor quality of some financial statements with 1,256 misstatements identified
Actions for Managing IT Services Contracts
Managing IT Services Contracts
Neither agency (NSW Ministry of Health and NSW Police Force) demonstrated that they continued to get value for money over the life of these long term contracts or that they had effectively managed all critical elements of the three contracts we reviewed post award. This is because both agencies treated contract extensions or renewals as simply continuing previous contractual arrangements, rather than as establishing a new contract and financial comm
Actions for Managing Hospital Waste
Managing Hospital Waste
In 1998 NSW Health developed Waste Management Guidelines to promote continuous improvement in waste management across the public health sector. Systematic implementation of the Guidelines was impeded in 1999- 2000 by resistance from the waste industry and transport workers. Since then, NSW Health has not actively promoted waste management in public hospitals. As a consequence Area Health Services (AHSs) and hospitals have developed separate and individua