Patrick Barrett

Australian National University | ANU · Research School of Accounting and Business Information Systems (RSABIS)

The ‘Holy Grail’ of decades of public sector reform has been the public availability of readily-understandable, reliable and meaningful performance information about government activities and programmes. Maps have been drawn; processes have been developed; some actual progress has been made in a number of countries; but the end is not in sight. Put...

The current Australian public sector reforms consultations commenced in 2010. The legislative basis for the reforms—the PGPA Act—was passed in June 2013, and commenced operation on 1 July 2014. Since then, considerable time and effort has been put into implementation of the performance framework involving extensive finance regulations, instructions...

Annexin-V+ Hematopoietic Cell-Derived MPs in Urine. (DOCX)

Major public service reforms are underway at the national level in Australia. The reforms are being implemented progressively over a three-year period. This is the third in a series of articles looking at the implementation of these reforms and focuses on the second stage, which was supposed to be completed in 2015. The author examines the recent r...

There is a growing loss of public confidence in governments worldwide, reinforced by the global financial crisis, but also reflecting some disturbing concerns about democracy. This article examines Australia's recent reforms aimed at improving performance and accountability which focus on managing the risks involved in achieving the required outcom...

It has to be observed at the outset that performance auditing has been a contentious issue for much of the three decades it has been pursued in Australia. That said, there is clear evidence of its growth and acceptance in that period. Nevertheless, there are still apparent differences in views and perceptions across the main stakeholders, not least...

Performance auditing (PA) is an important vehicle for assessing Value for Money (VFM) of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), as well as providing assurance to the Parliament and to the public about the accountability for the supporting strategic and operational frameworks. Experience to date with PPPs in Australia has been limited and mixed in term...