Elected members are responsible for setting the strategic direction of their council. This includes all decisions that impact how a local government operates, and bearing the outcomes of those decisions.

In this blog, we summarise Queensland Treasury’s major changes in its financial reporting requirements (FRRs) for this year.

In October 2023, Queensland Treasury (QT) released its latest audit committee guidelines for departments and statutory bodies.

What is risk appetite?

Risk appetite is used by organisations to drive decision-making, understand the extent of controls needed to manage risks, and assess how to take advantage of opportunities.

As we all know, buildings are expensive to construct and maintain, but they are critical for the delivery of public services. If entities do not maintain their buildings well:

A new reporting (and auditing) requirement has been introduced into the Corporations Act 2001 (Corporations Act), affecting public companies from the 30 June 2024 financial year end.

The use of information technology (IT) services provided by other organisations (third parties) is becoming more widespread throughout state and local government entities.

Queensland public sector entities, including local governments, occasionally make ex-gratia payments, sometimes called special payments, to terminated employees and third parties.

Each year, the Queensland Audit Office (QAO) holds an in-person and live-streamed event for all our clients’ chief financial officers, finance managers, and other staff involved in financial statement preparation.

The Queensland Audit Office (QAO’s) financial statement maturity model helps entities identify strengths and improvement opportunities in their financial reporting processes.