As discussed in Section 3.2, most departments' performance statements do not clearly measure their service efficiency and effectiveness. This makes it difficult for them to identify opportunities to improve their operations and demonstrate value for money. We used the Productivity Commission's RoGS to show how departments could restructure their performance information to better monitor their performance over time.
| Who we audited | What we assessed | What the audit cost |
|---|---|---|
| All eight Victorian Government departments | We assessed:
|
| Acronyms | |
|---|---|
| BP3 | Budget Paper No. |
We have consulted DELWP, DET, DFFH, DH, DJCS, DJPR, DoT, DPC and DTF, and we considered their views when reaching our audit conclusions. As required by the Audit Act 1994, we gave a draft copy of this report, or relevant extracts, to those agencies and asked for their submissions and comments.
Responsibility for the accuracy, fairness and balance of those comments rests solely with the agency head.
It is difficult for the government, Parliament and the community to use the results departments publish in BP3 and their annual reports to understand performance. This is due to:
Across all departments and service delivery areas, there are many output performance measures that provide little genuine insight into departmental performance. This is despite the Framework describing output performance measures as the 'building blocks of the accountability system' and the 'basis for the certification of departmental revenue'. This is a significant failure by departments in the application of the state's key performance and accountability framework. Contributing issues include:
Departments have not consistently developed or reported on objective indicators that show their achievement against their stated objectives. This means departments are not meeting the Framework's mandatory requirements. More importantly, it weakens departments' accountability and transparency by preventing the government, Parliament and the community from accessing vital information about their performance. Without information on departments' outcome achievement, the government lacks a sound basis for future investment and policy decisions.
Departments measure and report on their service performance to show what they have delivered with public money. This information helps the government to allocate funding, and Parliament and the community to understand if departments are delivering efficient and effective services.
DTF sets performance reporting requirements for departments. Each year, departments provide details of their objectives and associated performance measures, targets and results in the state's Budget papers. Departments also publicly report on their performance in their annual reports.
Our Data Dashboards are interactive visualisation tools summarising the financial statement data for all Victorian public hospitals in financial year 2016-2017. They have been grouped into the following cohorts:
FIGURE C1: Audit opinions issued for material entities