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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (20 November) . . Page.. 3881 ..

MR DE DOMENICO (continuing):

As to the other allegation, Mr Speaker, $485,000 in assets did not go "missing" during 1995-96. This was a gross misrepresentation by, I think, Mr Berry, because the $485,000 he referred to in the Assembly represented the historical purchase price of assets, not the written-down value. In fact, the written-down value of these assets was $149,000, the difference of $339,000 being depreciation over the life of the assets. These assets were purchased over a period of years, going back to 1992, and since then have been traded in or disposed of in an appropriate manner; but, because the higher accounting standards now in place did not apply in previous years, this disposal was not reflected in the assets register on a timely basis. This matter has since been addressed by the department, and no suggestion has been made that there is any concern of "theft, misappropriation or loss" of these assets.

Mr Speaker, the irony here - and Mr Kaine will appreciate this - is that this issue has come to light only by the action of senior management of the department and because of the new accounting procedures recently introduced. To meet the requirements of accrual accounting, they completed a diligent stocktake, which identified deficiencies in assets registers of the former three entities now comprising the Chief Minister's Department. The historical cost of these assets represents less than the 5 per cent materiality threshold as applied under generally accepted accounting standards. In other words, Mr Speaker, we are cleaning up the accounting deficiencies that existed in the past under previous Labor administrations. What Mr Berry, in fact, did yesterday was unwittingly expose poor management practices during the time he and his colleagues were in government.

In the audit opinion on the Chief Minister's Department annual accounts for 1995-96, the Auditor-General provided emphasis on the timely reconciliation of accounts. This matter referred to the daily reconciliation of the central government public and drawing accounts. Under the financial management reforms, these accounts have now been closed. The fact that these accounts were not reconciled on a daily basis is agreed. However, this matter was the result of the severe disruptions experienced from the work bans during the prolonged industrial dispute earlier this year. So, up-front, it is clear. This is what the story is. The facts of this matter are that there were thousands of transactions, totalling far in excess of $760m, which were paid and banked but not reflected in the central government ledger while the dispute - orchestrated, by the way, and backed by the members opposite - was under way. Notwithstanding this severe backlog, the officers of the Office of Financial Management are to be congratulated on their diligent reconciliation of these transactions - $760m, Mr Speaker, with only $150,000 left unreconciled. This, no doubt, contributed to the Auditor-General's decision not to qualify the accounts.

It is acknowledged, Mr Speaker, that the Chief Minister's annual accounts were submitted past the generally required due date.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I think there is a question of order in relation to some of the comments that Mr Carnell - I mean Mr De Domenico - has made. He is a mere shadow of his leader, I suppose. He accused Labor members in this chamber of orchestrating an industrial campaign. That ought to be withdrawn. It is a mere imputation. We did not - - -

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