Report on Ministerial portfolios May 1996
Overview
This Report is on Ministerial Portfolios. It also contains a section on the Parliament of Victoria as well as a section on matters of broad scope interest. It completes the cycle of auditing activities in relation to the 1994–95 financial year. Under the current Government's reform process, outsourcing has become an increasingly important element of the Victorian public sector culture.
The risks associated with the management of outsourcing arrangements have been recognised by the Department of Treasury and Finance which recently issued comprehensive guidelines that clearly delineate responsibility and accountability for such arrangements. There is a need for the Office of the Auditor-General to have full, free and timely access to relevant records of service providers and a need to ensure that such access is provided for in contracts between public sector agencies and service providers. There is also a concern that claims that information proposed to be included in the Reports to the Parliament were regarded as being 'commercially confidential' may escalate as outsourcing of activities to private service providers becomes more prevalent.