Financial performance
Full details of our financial performance are presented in the financial statements section of this report. The following summarises financial performance actual versus target for 2016-17.
Key effectiveness performance
Our effectiveness indicator shows the extent to which we have informed Parliament about public sector accountability and performance, against 4 specified categories. Full details of the categories and our performance are available on page 101.
As explained in greater detail on page 102, we set 3 year targets for each report type. The current target over 3 years encompasses 2015-16 to 2017-18. While we did not meet our targets for this year, we remain on track to meet out 3 year targets. During 2016-17, we reported on a number of Opinions on Ministerial Notifications that resulted in an increase in the number of governance reports tabled. The reallocation of audit resources to these reports resulted in a lower number of economic development and social and environment reports tabled.
Key efficiency performance
Our efficiency indicators measure the cost of our audits relative to government expenditure. Full details of our key efficiency indicators including 5-year trend data are available on page 102.
We achieved all our efficiency indicators due to a range of reasons including a 6% increase in gross government expenditure and our expenditure being lower than the budget estimate.
The performance audit cost per million dollars of gross government expenditure is significantly lower than the target. The target was based on a strategy of directing 30% of overall audit effort towards performance audits. The actual result was 27% due to fewer resources being available for performance audits.
The favourable variance between actual and target for the average number of days to issue financial opinions is due to agencies preparing financial statements and key performance indicators in a timelier manner and efficiency improvements in the audit process.
Additional indicator of our performance
Although not audited, we include this indicator because it is important in understanding our operational performance.
While we aim to meet our report targets, we are also at times required to reallocate resources to other audits. During 2016-17, the reallocation of audit resources resulted in a lower number of broad scope performance audit reports tabled.
Our strategic direction
In February 2016, Executive Management Group (Executive) endorsed our Strategic Plan 2016-2020 confirming our vision, mission and values.
Our strategic plan rotates around 4 key areas of the business that we have identified as important to achieve our vision and mission.
Our People working with Our Tools with the right Approach will deliver Our Products which will fulfil our Outcome:
Work that makes a difference and helps to improve the public sector.
We have identified that we need our people to be motivated, innovative, collaborative, accountable, valued, skilled and knowledgeable.
Our tools are vital in supporting our people achieve our goals. We believe our tools need to be robust, efficient, user-friendly, flexible, agile, reliable and compliant.
Our approach needs to be consistent, fair and balanced, independent, transparent, pragmatic, professional and contemporary.
Together these 3 areas working at an optimum will ensure our products are recognised as value for money, timely, relevant, accurate, quality and innovative.
We have identified specific outcomes in each area to focus our efforts and attention on, which we believe will deliver the required result.
We assess our performance against the Strategic Plan and report the results to Executive and staff. Overall, this year we achieved 73% of our Strategic Plan targets. In areas where we had not met our targets,
Executive discussed ways to improve our performance. They also took the opportunity to review the actions, measures and targets of the plan to ensure they remain relevant and current so we can be confident that the areas of focus will deliver the required outcomes.
Changes included new measures to ensure we remain a workplace of choice, that our information systems provide what the business needs, and that we have the resources available to achieve our business goals.
An important aspect of our Strategic Plan has been to integrate other OAG documents. We have a range of internal plans and in the past they have operated and been reported on as standalone documents – our new approach to strategic planning brings all our plans together. This ensures that all areas of the business are working in the same direction to deliver common goals.
Figure 5 shows our achievement against the Strategic Plan measures overall and also in the 3 associated plans.
This annual report has been structured in line with the 4 key areas of our Strategic Plan and each section looks further into the specific outcomes, strategies and performance over the past 12 months. Our full Strategic Plan is outlined in Appendix 1.
