Page 3497 - Week 11 - Thursday, 24 September 2015

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So I particularly look forward to the government’s response to recommendation 1. Given that the auditor herself had said that there were problems with the terms used, particularly “consideration” and “systemic matters”, it is quite clear that there needs to be changes to the act. Recommendation 2 goes to that:

The Committee recommends that the ACT Government introduce in the ACT Legislative Assembly—legislative amendments which, if passed, would provide reliable and constructive definitions for ‘consideration’ and ‘systemic matters’ …

If we cannot agree on what it is we are looking at, that makes it very hard for the commissioners to do their jobs.

The third recommendation looks at the integrated management system that the government talk about in their correspondence. The committee had difficulty understanding whether the integrated management system was in fact a computer system or was a system of operation inside the department. Recommendation 3 says:

The Committee recommends that the ACT Government table in the ACT Legislative Assembly, within 90 days of the tabling of this report, a comprehensive description of the Integrated Management System, specifying to what extent it is an administrative, training and/or software system.

There are three further recommendations. One asks that on the first sitting day in 2016 the government update the Assembly on the progress and effectiveness of their implementation of the recommendations. Recommendation 5 suggests that the Auditor-General should conduct a performance audit of statutory office holders in the ACT within two years of the tabling of this report to see how the statutory officers are performing. And recommendation 6 recommends that government agencies and directorates should regularly monitor and review core governance elements to make sure that they are constantly being updated so that any shortcomings are promptly and appropriately addressed.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Statement by chair

MR SMYTH (Brindabella) (11.43): Pursuant to standing order 246A I make a statement on behalf of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts relating to the committee’s ongoing inquiry into the loose-fill asbestos insulation eradication scheme. The focus of this inquiry is the government’s quarterly progress reports on the implementation of the scheme. The first quarterly report on the scheme was the former Chief Minister’s ministerial statement on 30 October 2014.

The second quarterly report on the scheme was presented to the Legislative Assembly on 24 March 2015. This report concerns the period October to December 2014. The report provided an update on “the recent activity of the task force, including the progress of the buyback program”. On 7 May this year the committee advised the Assembly that it believed there was merit in considering the second quarterly report in conjunction with the third quarterly report on the basis that further information will be available to assist it in its assessment of the performance parameters of the scheme.


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