NSW Audit Office - Awareness - Issue 2003 06 - July 2003

AWARENESSccounting and Auditing Developments Issue 6 JULY 2003AUDIT OFFICE 1AUDIT OFFICE UPDATEUPDATEAUDITOR-GENERAL’S REPORT TO PARLIAMENT 2003, VOLUME TWOACCOUNTING 7The report was released on the 29 May 2003. Significant issues in this UPDATEvolume include:URGENT ISSUES 8GROUP UPDATECompliance Review of Commercial Activities in UniversitiesINTERNATIONAL 9Legislation requires universities to prepare guidelines for their commercial UPDATEactivities and maintain a register of these activities.OTHER ISSUES 11Two universities have not established registers of their commercial activities. The registers of all other universities are incomplete for a MISCELLANEOUS 12variety of reasons. Contrary to legislation, some of the guidelines allow PUBLICATIONSuniversities to omit activities from the register if the estimated value of the project is below a figure determined by the university. The Minister LEGISLATIVE 13has not approved any of the guidelines. CHANGES UPDATETREASURY 13UPDATECompliance Review of Credit Card Usage in UniversitiesWhile most universities have adequate policy and procedure manuals for PREMIER’S 14credit cards, some expenditure is contrary to policy and is not supported DEPARTMENT by appropriate documentation. Most universities have some cards with UPDATEunlimited credit.AUDIT OFFICE 15BETTER PRACTICEUniversity Companies, Joint Ventures etc – Repeat Finding GUIDESFor a number of years we have reported that universities ...