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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 13 Hansard (4 December) . . Page.. 4615 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

First, I refer to the committee's role. The resolution of the Assembly requires the committee to examine and report to the Assembly on the accounts of the receipts and expenditures of the ACT, the financial affairs of its authorities and all reports of the Auditor-General which are laid before the Assembly. The committee is also required to examine and report on any items or matters in those accounts, statements and reports, or any circumstances connected with them, to which the committee is of the opinion that the attention of the Assembly should be directed. The committee has a further responsibility to inquire into and report on the implementation of the Public Sector Management Act 1994.

The raw statistics show that the committee has been fully involved in discharging its responsibility to the Assembly. A glance at the notice paper will give an indication of the breadth and complexity of the issues which have come before and been dealt with by the committee. The committee has examined a wide range of matters which have been the subject of Auditor-General's reports. It has been the committee's practice to invite the relevant Minister or Ministers to respond to the findings of the Auditor-General. As necessary, the committee discusses audit findings with the Auditor-General, and, where appropriate, other interested or affected parties have been invited to put their views to the committee. Again, where appropriate, public hearings on audit findings have been held. From this process and other research, the committee develops a position on every audit report finding from which it has invariably made recommendations for Assembly or Government action.

The issues covered by audit reports have been of considerable significance to the governance of the Territory. Audit reports and committee inquiries have included matters such as the outcomes of financial audits across all agencies, land joint ventures, secondary colleges, the Australian International Hotel School, VMO contracts, cultural development funding and the Territory operating loss. The committee's task, in effect, has been to audit the audit and to develop courses of action to ensure that there is proper accountability for Territory expenditures reviewed by the Auditor-General and that there is prudential management of associated agency programs. The committee's recommendations have always been focused to this end and it is pleasing to note that, with the large number of often hard-hitting and searching committee recommendations over a wide range of matters, there have been very few occasions when it has not been possible to achieve unanimity within the committee.

In this regard I pay tribute to the work and contribution of my colleagues, Mrs Littlewood and Ms Horodny. The Public Accounts Committee demands an intense focus on important matters of public administration and my colleagues have been ever ready to bring an earnest philosophical and intellectual commitment to these matters. Behind the public face of the Assembly in sittings such as this one today, it is not always known by the general community that members work long, closely and cooperatively in committee and in the interests of the ACT community. This is the case in the Public Accounts Committee, and is true of other committees in the Assembly as well.

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