EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
(Issued by the authority of the Minister for Finance)
SUBJECT: AUDIT ACT 1901
FINANCE REGULATIONS
1988 No 206
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. The attached Statutory Rules amend the Finance Regulations made pursuant to those provisions.
Regulation 1
This Regulation defines the Finance Regulations as the Principal Regulations.
Regulation 2
Regulation 2 amends Finance Regulation 32 which provided that, unless the Secretary to the Department of Finance otherwise determined, details of all government property which was sold was to be advised to the Auditor-General in accordance with Form 7 in the Schedule.
There has been a change in the name of the Auditor-General’s Office. It is now called the Australian Audit Office and its State offices are called Regional Offices. To reflect these changes and to make the regulations more specific, the reference to the Auditor-General in regulation 32 has been changed to “Regional Manager, Australian Audit Office, in the State or Territory in which the property is located”.
The amendment to Form 7 in the Schedule is consequential upon that to regulation 32.
Regulation 3
Regulation 3 amends existing Finance Regulation 129A by increasing the limit prescribed in that regulation for the purposes of section 37B of the Act.
Section 37B provides the Minister for Finance with the discretion to authorize payment of moneys owing to deceased persons, up to the amount prescribed, to persons whom the Minister thinks it proper to make payment, without the production of probate of the will, or letters of administration of the estate.
The previous limit prescribed in regulation 129A was $2,000. That limit was set in 1974 and, in the light of the changes in the value of money since then, the limit has now been increased to the more appropriate level of $4,000.