The Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford released a report today highlighting a decline in net profits of electricity agencies and the distributions the government received from these agencies. The report also details continuing issues in the management of Crown Land and TAFE NSW's student administration system.

Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford released a report on the planning and environment cluster today, concluding that the quality of financial reporting is improving. However, the cluster can improve its financial controls and governance framework.

This report analyses the results of the financial statement audits of the Finance, Services and Innovation cluster entities for the year ended 30 June 2016.

Overall, NSW Government initiatives and processes to prevent and reduce red tape were not effective, according to a report released today by the NSW Auditor-General.

In 2015, the Government reported that its red tape reduction initiatives, implemented between 2011 and 2015, had resulted in $896 million in savings. While these initiatives resulted in some savings, the total value of savings is unknown because estimates for some initiatives were based on unverified assumptions, cost transfers or unrealised projections.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #272 - released 25 August 2016

Governments provide assistance to industry for a number of reasons, including facilitating economic growth, increase employment, support regional development, or grow priority industries.
 
This audit examined seven programs administered by the former Department of Trade and Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services that provide at least $2 million per year in grants and subsidies to industry. This included the State Investment Attraction Scheme and Regional Industries Investment Fund.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #262 - released 17 December 2015

The NSW Government continues to divest its interest in electricity businesses.
 
In 2014-15, Macquarie Generation and Delta Electricity’s Colongra power stations were sold, collectively raising over $1.7 billion in gross proceeds.
 
In November 2015, the NSW Government announced the lease of TransGrid for 99 years to a private sector consortium for $10.3 billion and the sale of Delta Electricity’s Vales Point power station for $1.0 million. It expects to lease 50.4 percent of Ausgrid and Endeavour Energy during 2016, but retain 100 percent ownership of Essential Energy.
 
Its net investment in the electricity businesses at 30 June 2015 was $10.8 billion ($11.4 billion at 30 June 2014). This comprised $14.0 million in the electricity generators, $2.1 billion in TransGrid and $8.7 billion in the distributors.

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.

The distributions to the NSW Government increased from $690 million in 2013-14 to $1.0 billion in 2014-15. The increase was largely due to a higher dividend from Sydney Water Corporation.

The NSW Environment Protection Authority has reduced the average time to assess contaminated sites from 203 days in 2013-14 to 73 days in 2014-15. It is also improving transparency by making more information on its performance publicly available.
 
In 2014-15, the Department of Planning and Environment increased new housing approvals across New South Wales by 12 per cent to 58,252, exceeding the State priority target of 50,000. It also reduced the time taken to assess major projects from about three years in 2013-14 to four months in 2014-15.

The Government Advertising Act 2011 requires the Auditor-General to conduct an annual performance audit to check NSW Government agency compliance with the Act.

This audit focused on the Department of Premier and Cabinet’s (DPC) role in monitoring government agencies compliance with government advertising requirements, and examined advertising campaigns run by Destination NSW and the Sydney Opera House.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #253 - released 22 June 2015