Page 3775 - Week 13 - Tuesday, 8 November 1994
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Government Bank Accounts - Reconciliation
MS SZUTY: Madam Speaker, my question without notice is to the Chief Minister, Ms Follett, in her capacity as Treasurer. I refer to the independent audit opinion on the aggregate financial statement for the year ended 30 June 1994. In his qualification of the aggregate financial statement, the Auditor-General notes:
Treasury management is yet to implement systems and procedures which enable reconciliations to be regularly and conveniently performed. Treasury management has advised my Office that daily reconciliations from 1 July 1994 will be brought up to date substantially by mid-November 1994 and in future will be performed on a daily basis.
Can the Treasurer inform the Assembly whether daily reconciliations have now been brought up to date and whether they are now being performed on a daily basis?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I will certainly get an update for Ms Szuty on that question, bearing in mind the timing of the Auditor-General's comments. It is a fact, and I am sure that members are aware of it now, having seen the Treasury annual report, that there has been a problem of reconciliation of the whole of government bank accounts. That problem is of considerable longstanding and, in fact, predates self-government. It is regrettable that it has taken so long to come to light. I am quite sure that it would have been easier to fix had it been brought to attention somewhat earlier. Nevertheless, Treasury has given an undertaking to ensure that reconciliations from 1 July 1994 are brought up to date and are performed on a daily basis in the future.
Members ought to be aware, as the Auditor-General also commented, that this is not the only control that is available to Treasury; that they do have controls over payments, in order to prevent and/or detect errors in receipts or payments processes. This is not the only control measure. The problems that have arisen related mainly to the accounting of receipts. There is certainly no suggestion that amounts have been improperly charged against public funds. On the contrary, the problem was, I think, too much money in the account, rather than too little.
Madam Speaker, I will undertake to inform Ms Szuty whether the work that was due by the middle of November has, in fact, been completed. I can assure all members that our Treasury will be reconciling on a daily basis. With the substantial investment in the improvement of financial systems, we should see this kind of incident never occurring again. There has been a large amount committed to improving financial systems across the whole of the service. This area will be one of the areas that benefit from that investment.
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