The Environment Protection Authority’s expenditure for the financial year 2010/11 was $92 million - $76 million of this was for environment protection and regulation. The Office of Environment and Heritage and the Environment Protection Authority commenced 145 prosecutions for environmental offences and 106 were completed in the financial year 2010/11, down from the 134 prosecutions completed in 2009/10. Financial penalties for 2010/11 totalled $969,000 down from $1,403,000 in 2009/10. The average fine decreased from $10,468 in 2009/10 to $9,141 in 2010/11.

The audits of the New South Wales Government controlled superannuation entities financial statements for the year ended 30 June 2011 resulted in unmodified audit opinions within the Independent Auditor’s Reports. Findings show that Treasury should review the structure and number of public sector superannuation funds and consider whether efficiencies and cost savings could be achieved through consolidation.

The level of non compliance with the requirements of this Premier’s Memorandum is concerning, particularly considering the NSW Procurement Reforms were effective since 2006. The implementation strategy for procurement reform was announced as early as 2001. We recommend the governing bodies of agencies and management review, not only the processes their agencies have in place to comply with procurement reforms and requirements, but also more broadly how agencies identify and comply with laws, regulations, Treasury policy pronouncements, Premier’s memoranda and other obligations. 

The Audit Office has undertaken an audit on Government Office Accommodation. The audit examined the cost effectiveness of long-term leasing versus ownership and the housing of agencies involved with the delivery of core government activities.  Core activities are those intrinsically linked to basic and ongoing functions of Government and Parliament.

It recommends that:

• the Government consider owning office accommodation, as opposed to leasing, for its long-term core needs, subject to a case by case analysis of the relevant financial and nonfinancial factors

• the Government undertake an analysis of the costs/savings from proposed asset sales of office accommodation in light of the demonstrated need for long-term office accommodation (for core needs) New, Expired and Expiring Leases

• given the findings of the own versus lease case studies presented in this report, it is recommended that the Government require agencies to undertake, in collaboration with the Department of Public Works and Services (DPWS) a cost/benefit analysis of available accommodation options prior to committing to any proposed major new leases

• the Government direct the DPWS, in collaboration with all agencies, to negotiate the renewal of all major expired/expiring leases (where continued occupancy is warranted) in order to reduce the financial risk of above-market rent increases and the risk of cancellation of leases (Major leases are defined, for the purposes of these recommendations, to be those over $500,000 rental per annum or a net lettable area over 1,000 square metres) Management of Property Information

•  in order to improve the integrity of the Government Office Accommodation Database, agencies be required to respond to the annual data request from DPWS by a predetermined date

• a senior officer within each agency be required to certify to the accuracy of information provided by an agency as input to the database maintained by DPWS

• DPWS verify, on a sample basis, information provided by agencies as input to the Government Office Accommodation Database Premier’s Memorandum No 97-2

• the compliance by agencies with Premier’s Memorandum No 97-2 Government Office Accommodation and Property Disposal be established by DPWS.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #45 - released 11 December 1997

The audit identified that overall the agencies had carried out the redundancy process satisfactorily and the process, with some exceptions, complied with Government and internal policies. Government policy states that performance problems should be dealt with by managing the performance of the employee rather than restructuring/redundancy processes. In a limited number of instances certain employees, whose performance had been questioned, had been offered and accepted voluntary redundancy.

The audit also indicates that the process of redundancies has resulted in lower salary costs, in real dollar terms, without undue increase in either overtime or consultancy costs nor any detrimental effect on service quality. However, it is noted that the decrease in staffing levels occurred exclusively in the non-budget sector. Budget sector staffing levels increased by 1.4 per cent during 1989-95. There are also signs that the need for and the benefits arising out of redundancies are not well planned or measured. The need for redundancies often arises from a desire to reduce staff related costs while there is no comparison of the costs of redundancy compared to benefits.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #37 - released 17 April 1997