EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
1989 NO. 238
ISSUED ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER FOR FINANCE
Subject - Audit Act 1901
Audit Regulations (Amendment)
Subsection 71(1) of the Audit Act 1901 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations (not inconsistent with the provisions of the Act) for carrying out the provisions of the Act.
Section 70BA of the Act provides that the regulations may declare an authority or other body to be an authority or body to which that section applies. The effect of such a declaration is that, where the Auditor-General is authorised or required by the Act or another enactment to submit a report on an authority or body to a Minister, the Auditor-General may authorise an officer to sign that report on the Auditor-General’s behalf and, when the report is submitted to the Minister, it shall be taken to have been submitted to the Minister by the Auditor-General.
An amendment to section 70BA made by the Audit Amendment Act 1989 extended the scope of section 70BA to provide that, as well as authorities and bodies, the regulations may declare a company, in which the Commonwealth has a controlling interest, as a company to which the section applies. This means that reports on companies so declared may be signed by officers authorised to do so by the Auditor-General and when submitted to the person or body to whom submission is required under the relevant legislation, shall be taken to have been submitted by the Auditor-General.
To give effect to the above-mentioned changes to the Act amendments have been made to the Audit Regulations to declare those companies to which section 70BA should apply. In addition the current list of authorities and bodies which are subject to section 70BA has been updated.
REGULATION 1
Regulation 1 of these Statutory Rules provides that each of the companies specified in Schedule 3 is declared to be a company to which section 70BA of the Act.
The amendment brings into effect the changes made to section 70BA by the Audit Amendment Act 1989.
REGULATION 2
Regulation 2 of these Statutory Rules repeals the previous Schedule 2 to the Audit Regulations and introduces a new Schedule 2 which updates the list of authorities and bodies declared to be subject to section 70BA. The regulation also introduces a new Schedule 3 to declare those companies to which section 70BA should now apply.
The declaration of these authorities, bodies and companies will not effect the Auditor-General’s overall responsibility for the conduct of the audits undertaken or the contents of the required reports. It will merely permit the Auditor-General to authorise an officer to sign reports on his or her behalf, thus relieving the Auditor-General of some of the personal workload associated with that office. The Auditor-General would personally sign any report should circumstances arise which warrant him doing so.