Circulated by authority of
Brendan Smyth MLA

The Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Amendment Bill 2005 (the Bill) makes a number of amendments to the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act 2004 (the Act) to close a gap in reporting arrangements for ACT Government administrative units. The amendments in the Bill will ensure that government administrative units that are abolished or otherwise cease to exist during the course of a financial year prepare an annual report. Where an abolished unit has not made arrangements to prepare a report and/or there is no chief executive to prepare a report, the responsibility for preparing the unit’s annual report rests with the chief executive of the administrative unit responsible for administering the Act.

The Bill does not contain any financial implications.

Amendments 1, 2 and 3 are formal requirements that respectively refer to the name of the Act, the commencement provisions and declare that it is the Annual Reports (Government Agencies) Act 2004 that is being amended.

Amendment 4 inserts new words into section 5(3). The new words amend the definition of Financial Year to include those administrative units that cease operations during the year.

Amendment 5 inserts a new section 5A that obliges the chief executive of the administrative unit responsible for administering the Act to prepare an annual report for an administrative unit that does not have a chief executive to prepare a report and/or is abolished or otherwise ceases to exist during a financial year and has not arranged for an annual report to be prepared.

Amendment 6 inserts new words into section 6(3)(b). The new words amend the definition of Financial Year to include those public authorities that cease operations during the year.

Amendment 7 inserts a new section 6A that obliges the chief executive of the administrative unit responsible for administering the Act to prepare an annual report for a Public Authority that does not have a chief executive to prepare a report and/or is abolished or otherwise ceases to exist during a financial year and has not arranged for an annual report to be prepared.