The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) is the

supreme audit institution A supreme audit institution is an independent national-level institution which conducts audits of government activities. Most supreme audit institutions are established in their country's constitution, and their mandate is further refined in natio ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, functioning as the national

auditor An auditor is a person or a firm appointed by a company to execute an audit.Practical Auditing, Kul Narsingh Shrestha, 2012, Nabin Prakashan, Nepal To act as an auditor, a person should be certified by the regulatory authority of accounting an ...

for the

Parliament of Australia The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Monarchy of Australia, monarch of Australia (repr ...

and

Government of Australia The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national Executive (government), executive government of Australia, a federalism, federal Parliamentary system, parliamentary con ...

. It reports directly to the Australian Parliament via the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the

President of the Senate President of the Senate is a title often given to the presiding officer of a senate. It corresponds to the Speaker (politics), speaker in some other assemblies. The senate president often ranks high in a jurisdiction's Order of succession, succes ...

. Administratively, the ANAO is located in the Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio. The current Auditor-General for Australia is Dr Caralee McLiesh PSM, who was appointed in August 2024 to commence in November 2024. McLiesh's appointment follows the resignation of the fifteenth Auditor-General Grant Hehir in February 2024.

Role

The Australian National Audit Office is a specialist public sector agency that supports the Auditor-General of Australia, who is an independent officer of the Parliament of Australia. The main functions and powers of the Auditor-General under the include auditing financial statements of Commonwealth agencies, authorities, companies and their subsidiaries in accordance with the and conducting performance audits which are tabled in Parliament. The Auditor-General may report their findings directly to Parliament or to a minister, on any important matter. In addition, the ANAO plays a leadership role in improving public administration and audit capability in Australia and overseas by publishing information such as
Insights
and deploying experienced staff to audit institutions in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

Auditor-General

The Auditor-General is appointed by the Governor-General on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, for a term of ten years. The current acting Auditor-General is Ms Rona Mellor PSM, who was appointed to act in the role commencing 16 February 2024. Below is a full list of Commonwealth auditors-general dating from 1902.

History

The ''Audit Act 1901'' was the fourth piece of legislation passed by the Parliament. The Audit Act provided a legislative basis for the financial management of Commonwealth finances and the audit of related accounts, it also provided a legal foundation for the appointment of an Auditor-General. The first Auditor-General, John William Israel, began establishing the Federal Audit Office in 1902 in Melbourne. The office moved to Canberra in 1935, in line with Government policy at that time. The ''Audit Act 1901'' was amended in 1979 to allow the Audit Office to undertake performance audits ("efficiency reviews"). Efficiency reviews, or

performance audit Performance audit refers to an independent examination of a program, function, operation or the management systems and procedures of a governmental or non-profit entity to assess whether the entity is achieving economy, efficiency and effectivenes ...

, concerns the efficiency and effectiveness of a particular government activity. The ''Audit Act 1901'' was replaced with the ''Auditor-General Act 1997'', which came into effect on 1 January 1998. The main features of the new act included: * provisions that strengthened the independence of the Auditor-General and the Australian National Audit Office; * the strengthening of the Auditor-General's role as an external auditor of Commonwealth agencies, authorities, companies and their subsidiaries, including a comprehensive mandate to conduct, with some limited exceptions, financial statement and performance audits of all government entities; and * clarification of the Auditor-General's mandate and powers. In 1986 the ANAO hosted XII INCOSAI, the twelfth triennial convention of the

International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions The International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) is an intergovernmental organization whose members are supreme audit institutions. Nearly every supreme audit institution in the world is a member of INTOSAI. Depending on th ...

. The Australian National Audit Office also reviews Commonwealth Government agencies pursuant to the for the proper use and management of public money, public property and other Commonwealth resources; the that provides reporting, accountability and other rules for Commonwealth authorities and Commonwealth companies; and the for general corporate law.

References

External links

Australian National Audit Office
*
Latest publications
{{Authority control Auditing organizations Commonwealth Government agencies of Australia Government audit Parliament of Australia Supreme audit institutions