Corporate Governance
Internal and External Scrutiny
Audit
The Audit Committee convened four times during 2005-06. Its work included reviewing the Mint's financial statements and reviewing a range of internal and external audit reports.
The Mint again utilised the services of Ernst & Young as their internal auditors to undertake the range of internal activity identified by the Mint in their internal audit plan. Ernst & Young also provided a range of specialist advice during the year on related topics.
The Audit Committee, assisted by Ernst & Young, has a continuous improvement approach to audit services and regularly reviews the Mint's audit programme and scrutinises recommendations from completed internal audits, as well as relevant ANAO reviews.
The Internal Audit Plan identifies services and functions for auditing. It incorporates issues raised by the ANAO in its audit of the Mint's financial statements, recent ANAO reports on cross-agency matters, upcoming management issues, policy evaluations, previous internal audits and strategic risk management issues.
Internal audits
The Mint completed three audits during 2005-06. They were:
- Review of Management Reporting - the review found that while information flows were generally adequate there were significant opportunities to enhance the usability of information to create a shared organisational management structure;
- Review of Contract Management - the review found that since the last review conducted in 2003 there had been significant improvement in the management of contractual arrangements, however there was still room to improve practices even further; and
- Review of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) - the review found that the Mint had adequately planned for implementation of IFRS in accordance with relevant Finance briefs and Accounting Standards.