The Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) has released its audit plan for the next two financial years, set to undertake 19 performance audits in 2022-23 and 18 in 2023-24, in addition to annually recurring limited assurance reviews.
Releasing the Annual Plan 2022–23, VAGO said its performance engagements assessed whether Government Agencies, programs and services were effectively meeting their objectives, using resources economically and efficiently, and complying with legislation.
“They provide reasonable or limited assurance about activities that are performed well or represent better practice, and also identify opportunities for improvement,” VAGO said.
“Our limited assurance performance reviews provide less assurance than ‘reasonable assurance’ engagements, but they allow us to quickly and cost-effectively respond to, examine and report on issues where the additional evidence that would be obtained for a ‘reasonable assurance’ engagement is not required,” it said.
“Our annual review on how Agencies implement past engagement recommendations is one example of a limited assurance review.”
VAGO said it planned to deliver 15 reasonable assurance and six limited assurance reviews in the coming financial year.
It said it assessed potential performance engagement topics against six criteria, including significance, risk and relevance to stakeholders.
“Our work program reflects a risk-based approach to ranking topics from across the Victorian Public Sector (VPS) with an aim to deliver a work program optimised for impact,” it said.
“Rather than aiming for a balance of engagements across individual sectors, our work program looks to match engagements to the highest priority risks in the VPS.”
VAGO said its attest program delivered a range of assurance services for public sector Agencies.
It said that for 2022-23, these services included audit opinions on financial reports and performance statements of Agencies; a review report on the Estimated Financial Statements for the General Government Sector; an audit opinion and report on the Annual Financial Report of the State of Victoria; and other assurance activities such as audit opinions on grant acquittals submitted by Agencies to grant funding bodies.
The Office said its performance audits would cover seven sectors, Central Agencies and whole of Government, education, environment and planning, health and human services, infrastructure and transport, justice and community safety, and local government and economic development.
VAGO’s 48-page Annual Plan can be accessed at this PS News link.
