Victorian Consolidated Legislation

Audit Act 1994 - SECT 7A

Auditor-General's annual plan

7A. Auditor-General's annual plan



(1) Before the beginning of each financial year, the Auditor-General must-

   (a)  prepare a draft annual plan describing the Auditor-General's proposed
        work program for that year; and

   (b)  submit the draft to the Parliamentary Committee.

(2) The Parliamentary Committee must consider the draft annual plan and may
comment on it.

(3) After considering the draft annual plan, the Parliamentary Committee must
return it with any comments to the Auditor-General.

(4) As soon as practicable after the passage of the annual appropriation Acts
for a financial year, the Auditor-General must complete the annual plan for
that year, after considering any comments received from the Parliamentary
Committee.

(5) The Auditor-General must indicate in the annual plan the nature of any
changes suggested by the Parliamentary Committee that the Auditor-General has
not adopted.

(6) Before the beginning of the financial year to which an annual plan
relates, the Auditor-General must-

   (a)  present the annual plan to the Parliamentary Committee; and

   (b)  cause the annual plan to be transmitted to each House of the
        Parliament.

(7) The clerk of each House of the Parliament must cause the annual plan to be
laid before the House on the day on which it is received or on the next
sitting day of the House.

(8) If the Auditor-General proposes to transmit an annual plan to the
Parliament at a time when a House of the Parliament is not likely to sit
between then and the beginning of the financial year to which the annual plan
relates, the Auditor-General must-

   (a)  give one business day's notice of his or her intention to do so to the
        clerk of the House of the Parliament; and

   (b)  give the annual plan to the clerk of the House on the day indicated in
        the notice; and

   (c)  publish the annual plan on the Auditor-General's Internet website on
        the day after giving it to the clerk.

(9) The clerk of a House must-

   (a)  notify each member of the House of the receipt of a notice under
        subsection (8)(a) on the same day that the clerk receives that notice;
        and

   (b)  give a copy of the annual plan to each member of the House as soon as
        practicable after the annual plan is received under subsection (8)(b);
        and

   (c)  cause the annual plan to be laid before the House on the next sitting
        day of the House.

(10) An annual plan that is given to the clerk of a House under subsection
(8)(b) is taken to have been published by order, or under the authority, of
the House.

(11) The publication of an annual plan by the Auditor-General under subsection
(8)(c) is absolutely privileged and the provisions of sections 73 and 74 of
the Constitution Act 1975 and any other enactment or rule of law relating to
the publication of the proceedings of the Parliament apply to and in relation
to the publication of the annual plan as if it were a report to which those
sections applied and had been published by the Government Printer under the
authority of the Parliament.