Page 1559 - Week 06 - Thursday, 7 June 2007
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There was also a paper presented by the auditor-general of Tasmania, Mike Blake, entitled The role of auditors-general in relation to outsourced government activities/functions. This paper presented the view that auditors-general have a role to play in ensuring that activities and functions outsourced to the private sector or to other public sector agencies are managed effectively and efficiently and that the outsourcing agency retains accountability for the activity of the function outsourced. As a matter that has generated significant interest, the paper concluded that government cannot outsource its duty of care. While a government agency can outsource an activity to the private sector and the private sector body provides the service to the taxpayers or ratepayers, they do so ultimately on behalf of the government agency.
A hypothetical was presented to this conference by the chair of the Tasmanian parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, the Hon Jim Wilkinson MLC. The theme of that hypothetical was “how PACs deal with claims of public interest immunity by public sector agencies”. The hypothetical format, whilst not a paper presenting a particular view, provided a well-facilitated scenario whereby a number of conference delegates participated in an active, informative and entertaining discussion of the possible actions and strategies available to public accounts committees when dealing with claims of public interest immunity by public sector agencies. My colleague the deputy chair of the ACT standing committee, Dr Foskey MLA, participated in the hypothetical.
The committee, as part of the conference program, hosted a pre-dinner social function at the Legislative Assembly for the ACT. Conference delegates and observers were officially welcomed by the Assembly’s Speaker, Mr Wayne Berry MLA. Mr Speaker, I thank you for signing off on having that event. I believe it was well received and I thank our committee secretary, Andrea Cullen, for going above and beyond the call in making sure that all came together so well.
The Australasian Council of Public Accounts Committees was formed in 1989. ACPAC meets every two years in conference, with a mid-term meeting to discuss and agree on an agenda for the forthcoming conference and to discuss issues specifically pertaining to Australasian committees. In terms of ACPAC general business and resolutions, as part of the conference program the Solomon Islands public accounts committee made a presentation, and it was an excellent presentation, expressing their interest in full membership of ACPAC. At the ACPAC general business meeting, members considered amendments to the ACPAC constitution to admit the public accounts committee of the Solomon Islands as a full member of ACPAC. The ACT Standing Committee on Public Accounts moved the proposed amendments to the ACPAC constitution admitting the public accounts committee of the Solomon Islands as a full member of ACPAC. The 10th biennial ACPAC conference is to be hosted by New Zealand’s finance and expenditure committee.
In conclusion, the committee sincerely thanks the commonwealth Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit, its secretariat and the commonwealth parliament for their welcome and outstanding efforts in hosting the ninth biennial ACPAC conference. Meeting papers are available for perusal in the Committee Office. I thank my colleagues and the committee secretary for their assistance with this matter.
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