Report 21

Opinion on Ministerial Notification

Introduction and What did we do?

This report deals with a decision by the Minister for Corrective Services, the Hon Joe Francis MLA not to provide information to the Legislative Council Standing Committee on Public Administration (Committee). The information requested was:

  • an unredacted copy of the mid-term review of the Court Security and Custodial Services Contract (Review)
  • the Public Sector Comparator ( Comparator) developed for the previous Court Security and Custodial Services tender process.

Section 82 of the Financial Management Act 2006 (the FM Act) requires a Minister who decides that it is reasonable and appropriate not to provide certain information to Parliament, to give written notice of the decision to both Houses of Parliament and the Auditor General within 14 days of the decision.

Section 24 of the Auditor General Act 2006 (AG Act) requires the Auditor General to provide an opinion to Parliament as to whether the Minister’s decision was reasonable and appropriate.

What did we do?

The Audit Practice Statement on our website (www.audit.wa.gov.au) sets out the process we follow to arrive at our section 82 opinions, including:

  • a review of agency documents
  • a review of any advice provided to the relevant Minister by agencies, the State Solicitor’s Office (SSO) or other legal advisers
  • interviews with key agency staff including discussions about our draft findings and the Auditor General’s opinion.

Our procedures are designed to gather sufficient appropriate evidence to support an independent view to Parliament on the reasonableness and appropriateness of the Minister’s decision. However, because of the matter described in the Disclaimer of Opinion paragraph below, we were not able to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence to provide a basis for an opinion.

We have not performed an audit, however our procedures follow the key principles in the Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards.

 
Page last updated: October 6, 2016

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