The Auditor-General, Brendan Worrall has issued a report on the connection between Audit Committees in Departments and Statutory Bodies and how well they affect their governance frameworks.
In his Auditor-General Insight report No. 2 Effectiveness of audit committees in State Government entities, Mr Worrall found there were 92 Audit Committees across the public sector but not all Agencies ‘embraced good governance’.
“Effective audit committees can require a significant investment in time and resources,” Mr Worrall said.
“Of the 74 Audit Committee Chairs who responded to our survey, over 80 per cent said they spend up to five hours reading papers for meetings, that for most are held four times a year for at least two hours,” he said.
“Unfortunately, some entities still do not embrace good governance and do not move beyond compliance, thereby not realising the value good governance can bring to an entity.”
Mr Worrall said recent project failures in both the public and private sectors had often been symptomatic of ineffective governance frameworks and practices, resulting in poor program and project management and delivery.
“A number of my reports to Parliament over the last three years have observed failures in programs and projects that have stemmed from poor governance within and across entities,” he said.
“This indicates that governance is an area requiring greater attention and improvement across the Queensland public sector.”
The Auditor-General emphasised that instances of poor governance could expose all public sector entities to risks including financial loss, reputational damage, and missed business opportunities.
“I propose to build on this report in the future by assessing the effectiveness of audit committees in the Local Government sector,” he said.
“I will continue to focus on key elements of governance frameworks, such as program and project governance, and undertake a review of board appointment and renewal processes.”
Mr Worrall’s 37-page Insight can be accessed at this PS News link.
