Please sir, the ANAO needs some more… 

The Australian National Audit Office has cited a range of factors, including the need to audit new climate change disclosures, as reasons for seeking more funding for the country’s top audit agency.

Funding concerns are highlighted in the newly released ANAO annual report for 2023-24, and the agency makes clear that there are increased costs in delivering high quality audit and assurance work to the parliament.

The report highlights that the join committee of public accounts and audit has expressed concern about the unsustainability of the ANAO’s funding, and the limitations funding problems place on the ANAO’s ability to both ensure operational independence and the successful performance of its statutory role.

Expenditure during the 2023-24 financial year hit $104 million, with the ANAO reporting a deficit on continuing operations of $6 million.

Total revenue from government was $92.2 million, with $5.8 million of income the ANAO was able to get from other sources.

Among the issues in the ANAO’s report are emerging requirements for climate reporting that will hit the public sector as the sustainability disclosure rules being developed by the Australian Accounting Standards Board are finalised.

“Achieving sustainable funding will be a priority for the ANAO in 2024–25, in an environment of increasing costs of delivering high-quality audit products to Parliament, the growth in the performance and performance statements audit programs, maintaining the security of sensitive information, and the prospect of new audit requirements (for example, for climate change disclosures by entities),” the agency’s annual report says.

The coming year will not just be about auditing climate disclosures of government entities as the government has asked the ANAO to audit performance statements of 21 entities for the 2024-25 financial year.

Performance audits are also going to be more prominent in the next year.

“This coming year, the target for performance audit increases to 48, consistent with the Parliament’s expectations,” the annual report says.

‘As the number of performance audits completed each year grows, it will be a challenge to ensure that we remain suitably and skilfully resourced. In an employment market where attracting and retaining suitability qualified staff remains difficult, we will continue to assess the most appropriate resourcing approach to delivering our priorities across all audit disciplines.”

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