Audit objective and criteria

The objective of the audit was to assess the effectiveness of the Department of the Environment and Energy’s design and implementation of the Reef Trust. To form a conclusion against this objective, the ANAO adopted the following high level audit criteria:

• Did the design of the Reef Trust support the achievement of the Government’s policy objectives?
• Did Environment establish sound implementation arrangements?
• Did Environment establish robust performance measurement and reporting arrangements?

Conclusion

The Department of the Environment and Energy has been largely effective in designing and implementing the Reef Trust.

The design of the Reef Trust is aligned to the Australian Government’s broad policy objectives outlined in its original election commitment. Environment provided generally sound advice to government in relation to design options for the Reef Trust, with the advice to government informed by extensive stakeholder consultation processes. Stakeholder feedback received by the ANAO was largely positive about Environment’s consultation activities. Environment also incorporated into the design of the Reef Trust lessons learned from previous reef programs, consideration of delivering reef conservation activities that would not have been delivered under existing arrangements, and detailed prioritisation processes.

Overall, Environment’s performance in implementing the Reef Trust has been sound, with planning undertaken for initial and ongoing implementation and risk assessment activities conducted at multiple levels. There has been extensive stakeholder consultation on implementation approaches, which has usefully informed the prioritisation of funding activities and helped to minimise duplication across reef conservation activities. Environment has also established processes to minimise duplication in projects delivered under the Reef Trust. In relation to the selection of individual reef conservation projects for funding, Environment had generally considered value for money, effectiveness and priority when selecting areas of project coverage.

Environment has established a framework against which it intends to measure the performance and environmental impact of the Reef Trust and its approach to collecting detailed project-level data provides a sound basis to inform monitoring and reporting activities. Environment has also established reporting arrangements that provide external stakeholders with information on reef conservation initiatives, but is yet to report on program-level achievements. An interim program evaluation, planned for 2018–19, is intended to assess program-level achievements against the Reef Trust’s objective and outcomes. In the interim, Environment has indicated that it is exploring options to measure and report on the impact of the Reef Trust.