This audit focuses on the M4 handback. It looks at whether the road will be in good condition when the State gets it back, and whether it will cope with the extra traffic after the toll is removed. These are critical issues for taxpayers and motorists. Taxpayers don’t want to be responsible for a large repair bill and motorists don’t want to be stuck in traffic jams.

To ensure that future private sector partnerships (PPP) deal adequately with handback, we recommend that the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA):

• ensure deeds spell out an appropriate inspection and testing program to determine repairs required to bring roads up to a satisfactory condition at handback (p.11)
• ensure deeds link condition standards and maintenance approaches to changing industry standards and approaches over the life of the PPP (p.11)
• consider including in deeds a requirement that operators provide a performance bond or similar security over the cost of handback repairs (p.11)
• review the lessons learnt from the M4 tollway handback and determine whether it should seek to negotiate changes to existing tollway deeds to better deal with handback, by June 2010 (p.11)

Parliamentary reference - Report number #193 - released 27 October 2009

The Government Licensing Project (GLP) is standardising and simplifying processes of agencies which issue licences. However, it is currently running over the original anticipated completion date, exceeding the original budget and expected to produce savings less than originally planned.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #192 - released 7 October 2009

The audit’s overall conclusion is that Lands and Maritime are broadly achieving outcomes consistent with the IPART report on administering domestic waterfront tenancies. But a lack of collaboration between the agencies is contributing to poor customer service. Inconsistencies with the IPART report recommendations and operational differences between the two agencies result in different rents and conditions for tenants in the two agencies. The differences are having a significant impact on customer service.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #191 - released 23 September 2009

We found many aspects of good grants management, particularly in the Trust. All of the programs we looked at are clearly aligned to the Government’s objective to improve environmental outcomes. The Trust also has good practices for allocating grants. Performance in respect of results was mixed although many grants delivered tangible benefits - homes were protected from floods, degraded waterways restored and endangered habitats protected.

Generally we found that while both Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water and the NSW Environmental Trust had a range of strategies to monitor grants these were not always applied consistently or effectively. Grant programs need to be regularly evaluated to see what is working and what can be done better.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #190 - released 26 August 2009

The Magistrates Early Referral into Treatment program (MERIT) diverts adult defendants with drug problems from the local court into a drug treatment program. Recent studies of MERIT outcomes indicate that MERIT is a highly appropriate intervention program for Aboriginal defendants. It has improved the health of participants, including significant reduction in drug use and significant improvement in mental health. Better justice outcomes include lower rates of imprisonment and reduced rates of reoffending.

Overall, the ability to identify MERIT clients, the eligibility criteria, the location and the ability of MERIT teams to engage with Aboriginal defendants are key factors that limit MERIT’s capacity to treat Aboriginal defendants. MERIT needs to overcome these barriers. If MERIT is to be a truly mainstream program, it must adapt to meet the needs of all who should participate.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #189 - released 5 August 2009

Overall radiotherapy services are managed in a reasonably efficient and effective manner. Much is being done to further improve efficiency and effectiveness, and more can be done. While New South Wales has a number of well-established radiotherapy treatment centres, the high capital cost limits their availability in all hospitals. Some patients need to travel long distances and be away from their homes for up to seven weeks. The projected growth in demand for radiotherapy services will further challenge NSW Health and it needs to more clearly demonstrate how it will have the right facilities in the right place at the right time.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #188 - released 23 June 2009

Under appropriate conditions, shared service arrangements are a proven method for obtaining significant cost savings from productivity improvements and economies of scale. Benefits realised in NSW from shared services are significantly below what was expected. At June 2003 general government agencies had achieved savings of $13.6 million, or 5 per cent, of projected accumulated savings of $297 million to be achieved by 2006. Implementation costs are estimated to be $79.4 million. Most agencies had yet to fully implement the Government’s shared services strategy supporting productivity and salary increases.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #128 - released 3 November 2004

We recognise that Home and Community Care Services (HCS) operates in an increasingly difficult and changing environment. However, HCS does not have the capacity to meet these needs. Currently at least 50 per cent of those eligible to receive a service will miss out. Under the current system, there are inequities in service delivery. The ability to receive a service depends on when the applicant calls, where they live and if this coincides with service hours becoming available at the local HCS branch. In addition, applicants who miss out on a service may not automatically be referred to another provider. HCS needs to better manage both demand and expectations regarding access to the services it provides.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #127 - released 13 October 2004

This audit follows our earlier studies on ambulance response times, on waiting times for elective (i.e. non-urgent) surgery and on the ‘Code Red’ status of hospital emergency departments. Those audits indicated that matching resources to the ever-increasing numbers of people seeking emergency treatment was certainly an issue, but not the only issue. We found that problems were also occurring at the ‘interface’ between different parts of the health system – when patients arrive in ambulances at emergency departments or when they need to be admitted from emergency departments to hospital wards.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #125 - released 28 July 2004

In our view, the agencies we studied cannot be sure that the grants they allocate align with their corporate objectives, and that program outcomes are achieved. This is mainly due to problems with grant selection and the evaluation of results. It was good to see that most of the grants programs had funding objectives which were fairly clear. But we found problems across most programs which could affect the fair and equitable selection of grants, such as, often no procedures for assessing applications, no assessment guidelines for advisory committees, often no clear rationale for assessments and poor documentation of the reasons for decisions.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #104 - released 4 December 2002