We've published our Annual report 2021/22 on our website.

The past year reinforced, more than most, the importance of our work as the independent watchdog on the use of public resources. Our performance audits, inquiries, and good practice materials have supplemented our core audit role to help maintain trust and confidence in the public sector in another challenging year – both for the public sector and for the Office.

Parliament continues to value our advice and support in their role of holding the public sector to account for its performance.

This report also spells out the challenges we have faced. The ongoing global auditor shortage, and border restrictions in response to the pandemic, continued to affect our ability to complete all audits within statutory deadlines. Omicron also affected our staff and the staff of public organisations we work with. Despite these and other challenges, we completed 88% of the audits for large public organisations on time. We are actively addressing both the short-term issues from the auditor shortage and the long-term issues facing public sector auditing.

This annual report has also incorporated changes to the way we are reporting our own performance, including using a digital-first approach designed to assist readers of the report. This reflects our recent good practice guidance in this area and is one aspect of the report that we will continue to develop in the future.

Report from Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment reinforces need for effective public accountability

In a new report, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has called for improved public accountability to get better outcomes for the environment.

In conjunction with the release of this report, Auditor-General John Ryan has written about the relationship between effective public accountability, outcomes, and trust and confidence.

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