Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

COMMONWEALTH AUTHORITIES AND COMPANIES ACT 1997 - SECT 12

             (1)  Subject to subsection (4), the directors of a Commonwealth authority must do whatever is necessary to ensure that all relevant subsidiary's financial statements are audited by the Auditor‑General.

             (2)  For a subsidiary that is a Corporations Act company that, under the Corporations Act 2001 , is required to have those statements audited, the Auditor‑General's report on the subsidiary's financial statements must be prepared using the relevant rules in the Corporations Act 2001 . Those rules must also be used for other subsidiaries, so far as is practicable.

             (3)  The directors of the authority must give the report to the responsible Minister, together with a copy of the relevant subsidiary's financial statements.

             (4)  Relevant financial statements of a subsidiary do not have to be audited by the Auditor‑General if:

                     (a)  the subsidiary is incorporated or formed in a place outside Australia; and

                     (b)  either:

                              (i)  under the law applying to the subsidiary in that place, the Auditor‑General cannot be appointed as auditor of the subsidiary; or

                             (ii)  in the Auditor‑General's opinion, it is impracticable or unreasonable for the Auditor‑General to audit, or to be required to audit, the statements.

             (5)  In this section:

"relevant subsidiary's financial statements" , in relation to a Commonwealth authority, means financial statements of an entity for an annual accounting period of the entity, where the entity is a subsidiary of the authority at the end of that accounting period.