This year, we have focused on modernising our work and building a new culture that supports our strategic objectives, following a time of significant structural and physical change.

One of our new strategic objectives is to invest in our people. We want to enable high performance by providing a supportive culture, encouraging professional development and collaborating. We have invested heavily in the core skills of our people, most notably focusing on our managers.

4.1 Audit quality outside VAGO

We aim to be a leader in public sector auditing, working also to improve the practice of our profession.

Engagement with the Australian Accounting Standards Board

This year, we increased our engagement with the Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB), with the aim of ensuring that public sector reporting is considered more consciously in their deliberations and decisions.

3.1 Reporting on our performance

The products and services we deliver are organised into two Parliamentary output groups in Budget Paper 3. Output Group 1 covers Parliamentary reports and services, and Output Group 2 covers audit reports on financial and performance statements. We have performance measures and targets for quantity, quality, timeliness and cost, across both our audit output groups.

We have been performing our key functions for many years—financial audits since 1851 and performance audits since the 1980s. The challenge for us is to remain relevant and current.

The Auditor-General is an Independent Officer of the Victorian Parliament, appointed on behalf of Victorians to scrutinise how well government spends public money. VAGO helps hold the government to account through our financial and performance audits of public sector agencies and our resulting reports to Parliament.

Along with the Independent Broad-based Anti‑corruption Commission, the Victorian Ombudsman and the Victorian Inspectorate, we are part of Victoria's modern integrity system, and we work to protect the public interest.

Last year we focused on building VAGO's leadership team, getting the right structure in place and improving our external relationships. This year we have turned the lens inwards and assessed VAGO's own practices, particularly our use of technology and the way we spend our resources. We have also been quite deliberate in applying our audit findings to ourselves, leading to several important adjustments to our practices.

Accountability

Responsibility of public entities to achieve their objectives in the reliability of financial reporting, the effectiveness and efficiency of operations, compliance with applicable laws, and reporting to interested parties.

Adverse opinion

An audit opinion expressed if the auditor has sufficient appropriate audit evidence and concludes that misstatements, individually and in aggregate, are both material and pervasive in the financial report.

Figure D1
Risk definitions applied to issues reported in audit management letters