The Annual Report 2016–17 presents a summary of the performance of the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office from 1 July 2016 to 30 June 2017.

This report follows up on three performance audits we completed in 2014–15—Additional School Costs for Families, Effectiveness of Support for Local Government and Operational Effectiveness of the myki Ticketing System. We examined the progress audited agencies have made in implementing actions to address the recommendations from the original audits.

Section 7A of the Audit Act 1994 requires the Auditor-General to develop an annual plan and present it to Parliament, following consultation with Parliament's Public Accounts and Estimates Committee. The annual plan is a key accountability mechanism for the office of the Auditor-General. It gives Parliament, the public sector and the community an opportunity to assess our goals, understand our audit priorities and scrutinise our program. It sets out, for the coming financial year, our work program and the resources required to implement the program.

This audit examined the effectiveness of the Victorian Public Sector Commission (VPSC) and its governance and its oversight. We focused on organisational planning across VPSC, and looked at how it prioritises its resources and measures its performance.

In this audit, we examine whether boards are performing effectively and contributing to effective governance of public sector entities. Boards set the overall strategic direction for the entity, and monitor and manage the performance of senior management. In Victoria, around 3 400 public sector entities are governed by boards with, in total, about 33 000 board members.

In this audit, we examine how effectively two central agencies and three portfolio agencies support better-practice public participation approaches across their areas of responsibility.

This audit examined whether selected agencies manage public records according to legislative requirements, and whether the Department of Premier and Cabinet and the Public Record Office Victoria are effectively assisting them to do this.

The report comments on the results of the 2015−16 financial audits of 214 public sector agencies, including the seven portfolio departments and 207 other public sector agencies.

The report sets out the results of the audit of the State of Victoria’s Annual Financial Report for 2015–16 and provides commentary on the financial outcomes and position achieved by the state and the general government sector.

This report builds on last year’s Financial Systems Controls Report: Information Technology 2014–15. In this report we provide a high-level overview of the strength of information technology controls that operate across a number of entities to protect their financial information.

We examined whether the High Value High Risk (HVHR) process has been effectively updated and applied to provide sufficient and reliable assurance about the deliverability of HVHR projects.

This audit examined the effectiveness of governance arrangements for public sector audit committees, including their composition, operational arrangements and the information they received.