NSW Treasury has released guidelines for the State’s public sector Agencies on producing and lodging mandatory annual returns to Treasury this end of the financial year.
Chief Financial and Operations Officer of Treasury, Stewart Walters (pictured) said Circular TC21-04: 2020-21 Mandatory Annual Returns to Treasury for non-GSF Agencies applied to about 79 Agencies not included in the Treasurer’s Direction TD21-02 released earlier this month which applied to Agencies operating under the Government Sector Finance (GSF) Act 2018.
Mr Walters said Agencies listed in the TC21-04 Circular were required to submit to Treasury Draft financial statements, as prepared for audit; journal entries of leases with other NSW public sector Agencies; and audited financial statements.
He said Treasury collected and combined the financial statements from public sector Agencies throughout NSW to produce the Total State Sector Accounts; Budget Result and other Key Aggregates; Outcomes Report; Government Finance Statistics reports; and Submissions to credit rating Agencies.
“The Total State Sector Accounts produced by Treasury are subject to public scrutiny,” Mr Walters said.
“The continued focus on improving the quality and timeliness of financial reporting resulted in the Total State Sector Accounts for 2019-20 receiving an unqualified audit opinion,” he said.
“The Auditor-General reported that Agency 2019-20 financial statements submitted for audit and used for the whole-of-Government reporting, contained an increase in misstatements exceeding $20 million compared to such misstatements in the prior period.”
The Chief Financial and Operations Officer said Treasury’s focus going forward would remain on the quality of Agency financial statements by reducing misstatements and the underlying causes.
Treasury’s five-page Circular TC21-04, including a list of the Agencies it applies to, can be accessed at this PS News link.
