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.

Why adopt a systems approach?

Providing services to the community relies on governments entities taking care of the physical assets they operate.

The Queensland Audit Office’s forward work plan is readily available on our website, providing transparency around our audit priorities and the reports we intend to table in parliament over the next 3 years.

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.

An audit and an external review may differ in their approaches and levels of assurance, but there are parallels we can draw on how best to prepare and how to ensure maximum value.

Fraud and corruption risks are pervasive to all organisations, regardless of whether they operate in the public or private sector, or are for-profit or not-for-profit.