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 spend over $73 billion on programs to deliver services.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #277 - released 3 November 2016

Franchising services on the Sydney Ferries Network was justified, and Transport for NSW’s management of the franchise has been largely effective according to a report released today by the NSW Acting Auditor-General, Tony Whitfield.

'Franchising has resulted in cost savings, good service performance, and effective risk transfer from government to the private sector operator', said Mr Whitfield.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #265 - released 4 February 2016

The Department of Primary Industries (DPI) has a crucial role in assisting the irrigation industry to respond to the conflicting demands placed upon the state’s water resources. The State Plan emphasises the importance of water to agriculture, and gives DPI responsibility to use its training programs to help farmers continue to increase water use efficiency. DPI needs to work closely with agencies with which it shares responsibilities in the State Plan to ensure that its water use efficiency activities contribute to the State Plan goals. It needs to work closely with Treasury to document the services it will require to do this, the resources which will be needed, and how its success will be measured. This will ensure that DPI is well placed to continue to assist the NSW farming industry to adapt and survive periods of reduced water availability. 

Parliamentary reference - Report number #172 - released 21 November 2007

Between 2004 and 2006, the number of signalling failures, signalling downtime and the number of trains delayed as a result of signal failures all fell. RailCorp’s on-time running performance improved over the same period. The fall in failures is a clear indication of improved performance. Changes in the definition of on-time and to the timetable during 2005 and 2006 however make it difficult to determine whether improvements in response downtime and signalling delays are due to a true performance improvement. To build upon this strong base, RailCorp needs to determine with more confidence the number and duration of signalling failures the network can tolerate without impacting on service levels.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #170 - released 15 August 2007

We see considerable potential for the Ministry of Transport to plan and manage interchanges more effectively, so as to make better use of our public transport network. We believe that the Ministry now needs to focus more on multi-modal transport planning and interchange performance. It needs to assign responsibility for the coordination and oversight of inter-modal operations to an entity resourced for the purpose. Without this it will continue to be very difficult to identify and address unmet needs, seek and secure stakeholder funding, and monitor and evaluate system performance.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #168 - released 6 June 2007

Freedom of Information (FOI) Coordinators and their staff were supportive of the legislation. However, the agencies examined can do considerably more to fully achieve the intentions of the Act. On the positive side, all three agencies had processes in place to handle requests and had made a number of changes to improve the effectiveness of the FOI process. Fees and charges had also been kept to a minimum. No processing fees were requested in the majority of cases, and if charged, were not unreasonable.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #114 - released 28 August 2003

The Northside Storage Tunnel was the first major public sector construction project using an alliance approach. In our opinion, the outcome of the project suggests that an alliance approach, when applied to a suitable project and managed appropriately, can support positive project outcomes. And in many respects the Alliance worked well. There are, however, a number of issues that we believe need to be addressed for future alliances.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #113 - released 24 July 2003

State Rail has made significant improvements since the purchase of the Tangara. It improved measures necessary for handling contracts dealing with technically complex and innovative projects, although some other problems have been encountered, with new lessons to learn. The design and manufacture of new trains requires a significant investment in both time and cost. The Millennium Train has come at a considerably higher price than originally expected. And it is very late compared to the Government’s original announcements, as the development/design took longer than planned.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #112 - released 17 June 2003

A staged, systematic and careful approach and extensive business re-engineering effort underpinned the Roads and Traffic Authority's (RTA) steady progress in providing customers with a range of reliable and secure online registration services. The RTA’s consistent and disciplined pursuit of new and challenging e-business opportunities is commendable.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #111 - released 11 June 2003

The implementation of the Ovine Johne's Disease (OJD) program in New South Wales has been prolonged and difficult. In our view, the OJD Program in New South Wales has experienced two major difficulties with its implementation: the lack of a strategic approach to program management, and an ill-defined governance structure. Both the NSW Government and industry need to be better organised and improve the planning, direction and co-ordination of the OJD Program and future programs.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #107 - released 26 February 2003