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Overview

Role of the Auditor-General 

The role of the Auditor-General is to provide Parliament with independent assurance of public sector accountability and performance. This is achieved through reporting to Parliament on the results of its financial and performance audits and other insights.

About the Auditor-General Report

The Auditor-General’s report to Parliament No. 3: 2022-23—Managing Queensland’s COVID-19 economic response and recovery is an audit brief which examines whether the Queensland Government’s COVID-19 economic response and recovery initiatives were designed and managed effectively. The QAO examined the design, delivery, and evaluation of a selection of initiatives, as well as central monitoring of the initiatives based on the QAO report Queensland Government response to COVID-19 (Report 3: 2020–21). The audit didn’t assess the pandemic management or the impacts of decisions on border closures.

The Queensland Government committed $17.2 billion for economic response and recovery, for more than 300 initiatives. These included grants, loans, and state tax relief for both businesses and individuals. The QAO looked at 6 packages with a total funding of $3.7 billion. The QAO noted that these initiatives – together with the containment of the COVID-19 case numbers and economic stimulus from all levels of government – contributed to a faster-than-expected economic recovery through to December 2021. However, the QAO also identified key learnings for the future.

For future initiatives, when designing, delivering and evaluating rapid response initiatives, the QAO recommended lead delivery entities:

1. ensure the needs of target users are considered throughout the life of the initiatives – that is, during design, implementation, and monitoring
2. ensure their risk management has a key focus on risks to achieving the objectives of the initiatives
3. enhance inter-agency collaboration to explore ways of sharing information and external data within legislative requirements to improve uptake rates and prevent ineligible applications being approved
4. consult with relevant stakeholders to identify all key target users and ensure communications about the initiatives reach these users
5. evaluate the extent to which each initiative achieves its objectives and use this information to direct initiatives as they progress and in designing future initiatives

For the monitoring of rapid response initiatives, the QAO recommended that Queensland Treasury enhance the oversight of the portfolio of economic response and recovery initiatives through: 

• a governance body that continues to provide oversight of the portfolio’s performance until the portfolio is closed
• enhancing its data collection and reporting to enable oversight of the timely achievement of objectives and whether initiatives need to be modified or discontinued for optimal outcomes
• recording and monitoring the full costs involved in delivering all key economic response and recovery initiatives and using this information to inform future initiatives.

Referral to Committee 

Standing Order 194B provides that the Committee of the Legislative Assembly shall as soon as practicable after a report of the Auditor-General is tabled in the Assembly refer that report to the relevant portfolio committee(s) for consideration.  

The committee is responsible under section 94 of the Parliament of Queensland Act 2001 for assessing the integrity, economy, efficiency and effectiveness of government financial management by examining government financial documents and considering reports of the Auditor-General.

The Committee of the Legislative Assembly referred this Auditor-General’s report to the committee on 18 August 2022.