The Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Rule 2014 (PGPA Rule) requires that Commonwealth entities’ annual reports must include a statement of any significant issues reported to the responsible Minister during the reporting period under section 19 (1)(e) of the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) that relate to non-compliance with the finance law.
The PGPA Rule also requires that, if such a statement has been included in the annual report, the report must also include an outline of the actions taken to remedy the non-compliance. The format, wording and content of the statement is at the discretion of the accountable authority.
The level of detail that is included in an annual report will depend on the circumstances and generally would need to be proportionate with the nature and extent of the non-compliance. Entities need to consider the extent of public disclosure that would be appropriate, for example, taking into account the requirements of the Privacy Act 1988 or where disclosing certain information could potentially prejudice investigations or legal action.
If a matter of non-compliance occurred which affected two or more entities, and resulted in two or more entities notifying their respective ministers, then each entity would need to reference the non-compliance in their annual report.
When reporting in the annual report, entities may provide additional information to update the status of investigations.
XX instances of possible serious fraud were reported to the responsible Minister during the 20XX-XX reporting period. Of these, XX instances were found not to constitute fraud, XX have been referred to the Australian Federal Police, and XX are under ongoing investigation by the entity.
It is a matter for accountable authorities as to whether they provide an update on matters reported in previous reporting periods.
[Entity] previously reported that it was investigating an instance of fraud in the 20XX-XX annual report. This investigation was completed in 20XX-XX and did not result in any findings of fraud.
If an entity has not notified its responsible Minister of any significant non-compliance during the reporting period, it may wish to consider including a comment to that effect in its annual report.
