New South Wales Consolidated Acts

PUBLIC FINANCE AND AUDIT ACT 1983 - SECT 59

59 Form of books, records etc

(1) A book or record that is required by this Act or the prescribed requirements to be kept or prepared may be kept or prepared:

(a) by making entries in a bound or looseleaf book,

(b) by recording or storing the matters concerned by means of a mechanical, electronic or other device, or

(c) in any other manner approved by the Treasurer.

(2) Subsection (1) does not authorise a book or record to be kept or prepared by a mechanical, electronic or other device unless:

(a) the matters recorded or stored will be capable, at any time, of being reproduced in a written form or another form approved by the Treasurer, or

(b) a reproduction of those matters is kept in a written form approved by the Treasurer.

(3) An authority shall take all reasonable precautions, including such precautions (if any) as are specified in the prescribed requirements, for guarding against damage to, destruction of or falsification of or in, and for discovery of falsification of or in, any book or record or part of a book or record required by this Act or the prescribed requirements to be kept or prepared by the authority.

(4) Where an authority records or stores any matters by means of a mechanical, electronic or other device, any duty imposed by this Act or the prescribed requirements to make a book or record containing those matters available for inspection or to provide copies of the whole or part of a book or record containing those matters shall be construed as a duty to make the matters available for inspection in written form or to provide a document containing a clear reproduction in writing of the whole or part of them, as the case may be.

(5) A writing that purports to reproduce matters recorded or stored by means of a mechanical, electronic or other device shall, unless the contrary is established, be deemed to be a reproduction of those matters.