Australian National Audit Office

Australian National Audit Office

ANAO located in the Centenary House building in Barton, Australian Capital Territory.
Agency overview
Formed 1901
Jurisdiction  Australia
Employees 348 (estimate for 2013–14)[1]
Annual budget A$77.651 million (2012)
Agency executive
  • Grant Hehir,
    Auditor-General
Parent agency Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
Website www.anao.gov.au
Footnotes
[2]

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) is the national auditor for the Parliament of Australia and Government of Australia. It reports directly to the Australian Parliament via the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President of the Senate. Administratively, the ANAO is located in the Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio.

The current Auditor-General of Australia is Grant Hehir.

Role

The Australian National Audit Office is a specialist public sector agency that supports the Auditor-General of Australia, who is an independent officer of the Parliament of Australia. The main functions and powers of the Auditor-General under the Auditor-General Act 1997 (Cth) include auditing financial statements of Commonwealth agencies, authorities, companies and their subsidiaries in accordance with the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 (Cth) and conducting performance audits which are tabled in Parliament. The Auditor-General may report its findings directly to Parliament or to a Minister, on any important matter.[2]

In addition, the ANAO plays a leadership role in improving public administration and audit capability in Australia and overseas by publishing information such as better practice guides and deploying experienced staff to audit institutions in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.[2]

Auditor-General

The Auditor-General is appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Minister, for a term of ten years.

The current Auditor-General is Grant Hehir, who was appointed on 11 June 2015.

Below is a full list of Commonwealth Auditors-General dating from 1902.[3]

Name Dates
John William Israel ISO 1902  1926
Charles Cerutty CMG 1926  1935
Herbert Charles Brown CBE 1935  1938
Ralph Abercrombie OBE 1938  1946
Albert Charles Joyce CBE 1946  1951
James Brophy ISO 1951  1955
Harold Clive Newman CBE 1955  1961
Victor John William Skermer CBE 1961  1973
Duncan Robert Steele Craik OBE CB 1973  1981
Keith Frederick Brigden AO 1981  1985
John Vincent Monaghan AO 1985  1987
John Casey Taylor AO 1988  1995
Patrick Joseph Barrett AO 1995  2005
Ian McPhee AO, PSM 2005  2015
Grant Hehir 2015  present

History

The Audit Act 1901 (Cth) was the fourth piece of legislation passed by the Parliament. The Audit Act provided a legislative basis for the financial management of Commonwealth finances and the audit of related accounts, it also provided a legal foundation for the appointment of an Auditor-General.[4] The first Auditor-General, John William Israel,[5] began establishing the Federal Audit Office in 1902 in Melbourne.[6] The office moved to Canberra in 1935, in line with Government policy at that time.

The Audit Act 1901 was amended in 1979 to allow the Audit Office to undertake performance audits ("efficiency reviews").[7] Efficiency reviews, or performance audit, concerns the efficiency and effectiveness of a particular government activity.

The Audit Act 1901 was replaced with the Auditor-General Act 1997 (Cth), which came into effect on 1 January 1998. The main features of the new act included:

In 1986 the ANAO hosted XII INCOSAI, the twelfth triennial convention of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions.

The Australian National Audit Office also reviews Commonwealth Government agencies pursuant to the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 (Cth) for the proper use and management of public money, public property and other Commonwealth resources; the Commonwealth Authorities and Companies Act 1997 (Cth) that provides reporting, accountability and other rules for Commonwealth authorities and Commonwealth companies; and the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) for general corporate law.

References

  1. Australian Government. "Budget Paper No. 1". 2013-14 Commonwealth Budget. Statement 6: Expenses and Net Capital Investment: Australian Government. Archived from the original on 24 September 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "The Auditor-General Annual Report 2011−2012" (PDF). Australian National Audit Office. Commonwealth of Australia. ISBN 0-642-81266-7. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
  3. History of the ANAO, Australian National Audit Office, 2014, archived from the original on 28 March 2014
  4. "Report 419: Inquiry into the Auditor-General Act 1997" (PDF). Canberra: Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit. 2010. p. 1.
  5. "History of the ANAO". Canberra: Australian National Audit Office. 2011. p. 1.
  6. Wanna, John; Ryan, Christine (2003). "A Reactive Administrative Culture? The Legacy of Australia's first Auditor-General on the Australian Audit Office" (PDF). Canberra: Australian Journal of Politics and History. p. 5.
  7. McPhee, Ian (14 October 2011), Senate Occasional Lecture: The Evolving Role and Mandate of the ANAO Since Federation (PDF), p. 6, archived from the original (PDF) on 11 February 2014
  8. "Report 386: Review of the Auditor-General Act 1997" (PDF). Canberra: Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit. 2001. p. 3.

External links

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