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Reports

Published

Actions for Sharing school and community facilities

Sharing school and community facilities

Education
Infrastructure
Management and administration
Risk
Shared services and collaboration

Schools and the community would benefit if school facilities were shared more often.  The Department of Education’s ‘Community Use of School Facilities Policy’ encourages but does not require schools to share facilities. Sharing depends heavily on the willingness of school principals and there are few incentives. There are many challenges in developing agreements with community users and there is only limited support available from the Department.

Published

Actions for Information and Communication Technologies in schools for teaching and learning

Information and Communication Technologies in schools for teaching and learning

Education
Information technology
Infrastructure
Management and administration
Service delivery
Workforce and capability

Several factors are reducing effective use of information and communication technology (ICT) in the classroom. These are primarily: ageing ICT equipment and inadequate wireless networks variable student access to devices at school variable teacher access to centrally provided devices for use outside of the classroom. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are pervasive in

Published

Actions for 2016 - An overview

2016 - An overview

Education
Community Services
Finance
Health
Industry
Justice
Local Government
Planning
Premier and Cabinet
Transport
Treasury
Universities
Whole of Government
Environment
Asset valuation
Compliance
Cyber security
Financial reporting
Fraud
Information technology
Infrastructure
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Procurement
Project management
Regulation
Risk
Service delivery
Shared services and collaboration
Workforce and capability

This report focuses on key observations and findings from 2016 audits and highlights key areas of focus for financial and performance audits in 2017. The quality and timeliness of financial reporting continued to improve across the NSW public sector in 2016. Only one qualified audit opinion was issued and most agencies signed their financial statements on time. We found the Government’s cluster governance arrangements were unclear and inconsisten

Published

Actions for Assessing major development applications

Assessing major development applications

Planning
Compliance
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Risk
Shared services and collaboration

The Planning Assessment Commission (the Commission) has improved its decision-making processes for major development applications in recent years. The Commission has improved how it consults the public and manages conflicts of interest, and now also publishes records of its meetings with applicants and stakeholders. The Planning Assessment Commission (the Commission) is an independent body es

Published

Actions for Implementation of the NSW Government’s program evaluation initiative

Implementation of the NSW Government’s program evaluation initiative

Industry
Justice
Planning
Premier and Cabinet
Treasury
Environment
Financial reporting
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Risk
Service delivery
Shared services and collaboration
Workforce and capability

The NSW Government’s ‘program evaluation initiative’, introduced to assess whether service delivery programs achieve expected outcomes and value for money, is largely ineffective according to a report released today by NSW Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford. Government services, in areas such as public order and safety, health and education, are delivered by agencies through a variety of programs. In 2016–17, the NSW Government estimates that it will sp

Published

Actions for Monitoring food safety practices in retail food businesses

Monitoring food safety practices in retail food businesses

Health
Local Government
Compliance
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Risk
Shared services and collaboration

New South Wales has a lower rate of foodborne illness than the national average. This reflects some good practices in the NSW Food Authority’s approach to monitoring food safety standards. It also is a factor of the long-standing commitment by local councils’ to ensuring retail food businesses meet these standards. To ensure foodborne illness remains low, the Authority needs to better monitor its arrangements with councils which inspect retail food busi

Published

Actions for Early childhood education

Early childhood education

Education
Compliance
Information technology
Management and administration
Project management
Regulation
Risk
Service delivery
Workforce and capability

Enrolments in quality early childhood education programs in New South Wales are increasing but are below the national benchmark, according to a report released today by the NSW Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford. Ninety-five per cent of children should be enrolled in at least 600 hours in the year before school, but according to the latest NSW figures 77 per cent of children were enrolled in quality early childhood education programs. This 2015 figure i

Published

Actions for Supporting students with disability in NSW public schools

Supporting students with disability in NSW public schools

Education
Information technology
Management and administration
Service delivery
Workforce and capability

The Department of Education is doing a reasonable job in managing how well students with disability transition to a new school and supporting teachers to improve these students’ educational outcomes, according to a report released today by the NSW Auditor-General, Margaret Crawford. The level of support provided to students with disability can vary between schools. This is partly due to cultural resistance in some schools and teachers not always having

Published

Actions for The Impact of the Raised School Leaving Age

The Impact of the Raised School Leaving Age

Education
Management and administration
Service delivery

The Department monitors the attendance of all students who remain enrolled at government schools, and responds when these students fail to attend. For young people that have been granted an exemption from attending school, the Department monitors apprentices, trainees and those completing the equivalent of Year 10 of secondary education at TAFE. However, the Department does not monitor young people post Year 10 in full-time work or vocational education p

Published

Actions for Volume One 2012 focusing on themes from 2011

Volume One 2012 focusing on themes from 2011

Health
Industry
Premier and Cabinet
Asset valuation
Compliance
Financial reporting
Fraud
Information technology
Infrastructure
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Procurement
Project management
Regulation
Risk
Shared services and collaboration

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