The Auditor-General for New South Wales, Margaret Crawford, released a report today examining the effectiveness of Service NSW’s handling of customers’ personal information to ensure its privacy. The audit found that Service NSW is not effectively handling personal customer and business information to ensure its privacy. Service NSW continues to use business processes that pose a risk to the privacy of personal information. This includes the routine ema

This report analyses the results of our audits of the financial statements of the Treasury, Premier and Cabinet, Customer Service cluster agencies (central agencies), and the Legislature for the year ended 30 June 2020. The table below summarises our key observations. 1. Financial reporting Audit opinions and timeliness of reporting Unqualified audit opinions were issued on the 2019–20 financial statements of central agencies and the Legislature

The Auditor-General for New South Wales, Margaret Crawford today released her report on the findings and recommendations from the 2019–20 financial audits that relate to internal controls and governance at 40 of the largest agencies in the NSW public sector. The bushfire and flood emergencies and the COVID‑19 pandemic continue to have a significant impact on the people and public sector of New South Wales. The scale of the government response to these e

The Auditor-General for New South Wales, Margaret Crawford, released a report today examining whether the Department of Communities and Justice had effective governance and partnership arrangements in place to deliver ‘Their Futures Matter’. Their Futures Matter was intended to place vulnerable children and families at the heart of services, and direct investment to where funding and programs deliver the greatest social and economic benefits. It was a f

This report outlines whether the Department of Customer Service (the department) has effective controls in place to ensure the integrity of data in the Births, Deaths and Marriages Register (the register), and to prevent unauthorised access and misuse. The audit found that the department has processes in place to ensure that the information entered in the register is accurate and that any changes to it are validated. Although there are controls in place

A qualified audit opinion was issued on the Total State Sector Accounts for the year ended 30 June 2012. Qualified opinions have been issued every year for the past decade. The key issue contributing to past qualifications has been partially resolved, but new issues have arisen that impact the ability to confirm property, plant and equipment balances in 2011-12.

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, 540

There are many public inquiries and reviews into the government’s policy decisions and administration every year. Key sources of public inquiries and reviews include parliamentary committees, the Coroner, the Ombudsman, ICAC, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission and the Auditor-General. Other sources include statutory reviews of legislation, other reviews that the government has elected to make public and, more infrequently, special commissions of inqu

The 2019–20 bushfire emergencies, and the COVID-19 pandemic have had a significant impact on the people and public sector of New South Wales. The scale of government responses to both events has also been significant and has encompassed a wide range of activities, service delivery, governance and policy. Significant resources have been directed for emergency responses, and in assisting rebuilding and economic recovery. Some systems and processes have cha

Business continuity and disaster recovery planning assists organisations to prepare for and ensure they can respond to an incident or crisis. This includes natural disasters and pandemic events like COVID-19. Ideally, business continuity plans would ensure organisations are prepared to respond effectively to the impact of incidents or crises on a wide range of areas including service delivery, safety and availability of staff, availability of IT and othe