26 September 2023

Auditor puts 40 Agencies to the test

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A NSW Auditor-General’s report examining the internal controls and governance systems of 40 of the largest agencies in the NSW public sector has found widespread deficiencies across areas of financial, IT, compliance and reporting in the past financial year.

In her report, Internal controls and governance, Auditor-General Margaret Crawford said the 40 agencies were responsible for around 84 per cent of total expenditure for all NSW public sector agencies.

“The report provides insights into the effectiveness of controls and governance processes in the NSW public sector by highlighting the potential risks posed by weaknesses in controls and governance processes,” Ms Crawford said.

She said the report also helped agencies to benchmark the adequacy of their processes against others with the specific focus of the report changing since last year.

“Last year’s report topics included transparency and performance reporting, management of purchasing cards and taxi use, and fraud and corruption control,” she said.

“We are reporting on new topics this year and re-visiting agency management of gifts and benefits, which we first covered in our 2017 report.”

Ms Crawford said her office selected a range of measures and reported on those that presented heightened risks for agencies to mitigate.

She said this year’s report focused on: internal control trends; information technology controls; protecting sensitive information; managing large and diverse workforces; maintaining an ethical culture; and the effectiveness of internal audit functions.

“The findings in this report should not be used to draw conclusions on the effectiveness of individual agency control environments and governance arrangements,” Ms Crawford said.

The Auditor-General’s 67-page report can be accessed at this PS News link.

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