Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, , 8:23:32 to 8:28:12
Officials clarify differences between the Final Budget Outcome and the annual report, explaining the impact of accrual vs. cash accounting and interagency transfers on reported underspends.
Topics: Government spending, Integrity
Speakers: Ms Kelly Fisher, Senator The Hon Anne Ruston, Mr Greg Pugh, Unknown Speaker, Mr Daen Dorazio, Ms Sonja Stewart, Senator Ellie Whiteaker
It'd be very useful to know because I mean a 1.4 billion dollar save over nine months is an awful lot of money that has been projected to be spent, that's now not going to be spent and doesn't appear in the so but uh just in that sense. So we had 727 in home care. We had 57 in RESI, which is acknowledged five uh about 50 million was DVA.
About 53 is DVA.
Yeah, DVA.
I'd have to defer to my corporate colleagues from a whole of department point of view. I think Ms. Fesher is on the way to the table.
Meeting your savings targets, that's for sure.
Um I think when I explained the final budget outcome earlier, the final budget outcome 1.4 billion. Uh the annual report, which was published later yesterday, um represents that as being 1.28 to 2 billion. So um is that right? So I basically FBO counts 1.4. Annual report count final budget outcome counts 1.4 billion.
Yep.
Annual report counts 1.2 billion. The 517 plus the 727 is the makeup of the 1.2.
Yep. So where do you get the 1.2? What's the difference between the 1.28 and the 1.4?
I believe it's just uh the FBO counting a set of numbers and our annual report counting a set of numbers. We might need to ask out. Final budget outlook, sorry.
Um the final budget outcome outcome, which is a whole of government document.
Yeah.
But the department's chief budget officer.
Um just sort of interested in how we lose 120 million dollars in a accounting.
So we do have um slightly different accounting treatments that occur across the final budget outcome that's uh compiled by the Department of Finance versus the department's annual report uh without kind of going into too too much kind of technical detail. Final budget outcome is essentially a cash position. Um whereas when we compile the annual report um we um make adjustments uh so that's actually using accrual accounting, and so in you know, there's things like depreciation, interagency transfers, these things are removed uh in the different accounting treatment. Um the data I think you're looking for is uh most kind of disaggregated on page 290 of the department's annual report where you can see for programme 3.2 aged care services, uh the breakdown for all the special appropriations and how the underspend is distributed or sometimes overspend. Um depending on the profile of different programs.
So did you manage to find my 16 billion dollars today?
Uh uh DVA uh is is where you need to go next. Yes. So we can um I'm sorry. Did you talk about the health services?
Yeah, did you find out where you did you find it it was in DVA was it?
Yes, it's um it's essentially on the advice of the Australian government actuary around the treatment of uh some of their liabilities to do with um just get the detail back up. So the military rehabilitation compensation act programs. There was a one-off accounting treatment to recognise liabilities in a different way, as recommended by the Australian government actually, but I think um I understand DVA is back tomorrow night and probably better place to answer further questions.
I will be sure to ask them, so thank you very much for finding that out. Seemed like a rather a lot of money to go missing. Um so can I just uh finally before we finish with age care and this other people have got questions? I just the Inspector General or is you hear to age care? Okay, okay.
Excellent.