Commonwealth Numbered Acts

AUDIT AMENDMENT ACT 1988 No. 73 of 1988 - SECT 9

  9. (1) Section 51 of the   Principal Act is repealed and the following
section is substituted: Auditor-General to audit and report

"51. (1) As soon as practicable after the Auditor-General receives a
Departmental financial statement, or an aggregate financial statement, the
Auditor-General shall examine the statement and shall prepare and sign a
report concerning the statement:

   (a)  stating whether, in the opinion of the Auditor-General, the statement
        agrees with, or differs from, the accounts and records kept in
        accordance with section 40;

   (b)  if the statement is a Departmental financial statement-stating
        whether, in the opinion of the Auditor-General, the statement was
        prepared in accordance with the financial statements guidelines;

   (c)  setting out particulars of cases in which, in the opinion of the
        Auditor-General, the provisions of the Constitution or any law of the
        Commonwealth have not been carried out; and

   (d)  containing such other information relating to, such explanations of
        and such comments on the statement as the Auditor-General thinks
        desirable.

"(2) Subsection (1) does not apply in relation to so much of a Departmental
financial statement as is included in the statement in compliance with
paragraph 50 (2) (b) unless the Minister has, by writing, declared that
Departmental financial statements of the Department concerned are to be
subject to full examination.

"(3) Before making a declaration for the purposes of subsection (2) in
relation to a Department, the Minister shall have regard to any advice given
to the Minister by the Auditor-General as to the making of such a declaration
in relation to the Department.

"(4) The Auditor-General may, if the Auditor-General considers it expedient to
do so, discharge an obligation under this section to prepare and sign a report
by preparing and signing a report and later, but as soon as practicable, a
report or reports supplementary to the first-mentioned report.".

(2) The amendment made by subsection (1) applies in relation to the financial
year commencing on 1 July 1988 and to subsequent financial years.