Governments make investment decisions to support the achievement of their policy objectives and allocate funding to Commonwealth entities to deliver these objectives through the annual budget process.

Financial statements of Commonwealth entities provide useful information on expenditure and financial position, but do not contain all the information needed to measure and assess how well entities have used their allocated funding and public resources in the delivery of government policies and programs and the provision of goods and services. Consequently, Commonwealth entities need to supplement financial information with non-financial performance information to:

• enable the government to assess if it is achieving its policy objectives;
• be accountable for, and transparent about, how they use public resources;
• monitor and benchmark their performance over time and identify opportunities to improve the programs and services they deliver; and
• support government decision-making.

Audits indicate that entities are using their corporate plans and annual performance statements in different ways and giving them different levels of prominence within the entity. For example, where there is regular monitoring and reporting to senior leadership throughout the year it elevates the level of importance, improving the quality of performance information and reporting. Alternatively, if information is only reported as part of the annual performance statements preparation process it can be seen as a compliance exercise and not as an integral part of good management and stewardship of public resources.

Key findings:

• The 2022–23 audits indicate improvement in entity performance reporting. Compared to the 2021–22 audits, in 2022–23 the proportion of audited entities that received a qualified audit conclusion decreased. The proportion of entities’ measures that were included in the basis for qualified conclusion also decreased from 2021–22 to 2022–23.
• A total of 48 findings were reported to entities at the end of the final phase of the 2022–23 performance statements audits. These comprised 16 significant, 13 moderate and 19 minor findings. The resolution of 48 per cent of interim 2022–23 audit findings reflects that entities made effort to resolve findings during the final phase of the audit.