The Auditor-General has delivered his annual financial report on the State of Victoria for 2019–20 to Parliament.
As he concluded that the 2019–20 Annual Financial Report (AFR) of the State of Victoria was free from material error, the Auditor-General, Andrew Greaves (pictured), issued an unmodified opinion accordingly.
“Conclusion Overall, we found that the 2019–20 AFR is reliable and accurate, and consequently we issued a clear audit opinion on it,” Mr Greaves said.
He said the financial performance of both the State and the general Government sector deteriorated significantly compared to last year as the State responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr Greaves said there were 26 Government-controlled entities that made up most of the State’s revenue, expenses, assets and liabilities.
“We focus on these entities when auditing the AFR,” he said.
“We issued clear audit opinions on 25 of 26 of these entities’ financial statements for 2019–20.We issued an adverse audit opinion on VicTrack’s financial report because it incorrectly accounted for the transport assets it leases to the Department of Transport.”
The Auditor-General also referred to asset accounting issues in past years at VicTrack when he couldn’t verify $7.2 billion of the $44 billion of transport assets on its asset register, or the $754 million in depreciation expenses it reported this year.
“In our last two reports on the AFR, we commented on issues with the State’s infringement and enforcement system. During the year, the Department of Justice and Community Safety continued to work through these issues to either fully or partially resolve them.’
He said the errors were corrected in this year’s AFR.
Mr Greaves said he made four recommendations in this year’s AFR.
“One to the Department of Treasury and Finance to prepare and publish a separate statement disclosing the costs directly attributable to COVID-19; one to the Department of Transport and the Department of Treasury and Finance to work with VicTrack to resolve its asset accounting issues; and two for all Victorian Government Departments and Agencies to review their IT systems, security controls and the number of users who have privileged access.”
The Auditor-General’s 3-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.
