The Australian Auditor-General, Grant Hehir has prepared a mid-term report reflecting on his first five years in the role.
Reporting that while his reflections went to areas where he believed the public sector could become better, Mr Hehir said they should not be seen to infer that Australia did not have a public sector of which – in most respects – it could be proud.
“Over 50 per cent of performance audits undertaken in the past five years have found entities’ performance to be either fully or largely effective,” Mr Hehir said.
He said the impact of an audit on public sector performance was pervasive and positive.
“It is far more than the publication of a report,” he said.
“The mere existence of an audit (both financial and performance) moderates public sector activities to be more consistent with the expectations set out in its legislative and regulatory framework.
“Audit reports also provide important information for the sector to learn from the successes and failures of others,” he said.
Mr Hehir said there were good examples of the public sector operating as a learning system, not least some early evidence in its design of the response to COVID-19, in which it could be seen how the system had learned from previous failures in dealing with rapid implementation.
However, he said, there were also too many cases in which entities had not learned from the past.
“It concerns me when entities’ responses to audit reports try to publicly diminish the value of the report,” the Auditor-General said.
He said there had been suggestions that a conclusion referred to a minor issue, or that an audit had not appropriately taken account of context.
“I do not think a learning culture can be nurtured when the leadership of an entity fails to demonstrate that they are willing to confront the facts of performance presented by an audit,” Mr Hehir said.
He said the role of the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) was always to let an audit report “speak for itself”, rather than providing commentary outside the audit work undertaken.
“I do not see it as the ANAO’s role to do more than this, nor to provide anything other than factual briefings to parliamentarians or the media,” Mr Hehir said.
The Auditor-General’s ‘mid-term’ report can be accessed at this PS New link.
