Auditing the right topics, at the right time, is the key to achieving better public services for Queenslanders.

Each year we publish our forward work plan, which outlines our planned audit work – financial audits, performance audits, and assurance activities. These components work together to deliver a comprehensive evaluation of state and local government entity performance and accountability.

Our new 3-year Forward work plan 2024–27 is available on our website: www.qao.qld.gov.au/audit-program.

Where we are focusing our work

Public sector entities and local governments are facing a range of risks and challenges – some emerging and some long standing. These include increasing cyber attacks, emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cost-of-living pressures, maintaining infrastructure to service a growing population, environmental sustainability, and a heightened focus on integrity and transparency.

Governments are also facing challenges in delivering their capital programs, including heightened competition for key resources, which can increase costs and delay the delivery of key projects. The Queensland Government proposes to undertake significant infrastructure investment in coming years, with a capital program of $107.3 billion over the next 4 years to 2027–28. Appropriate investment in infrastructure by state and local governments will also be a major element in Queensland hosting a successful 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

We carefully consider these risks and challenges, along with other intelligence we gather, when developing our 3-year plan. Our blog How do we select what to audit each year? delves into the meticulous process we follow for identifying topics to audit.

For 2024–27, we have identified 6 focus areas that will guide our work:

Our planned audits for 2024‒25

Our plan aims to distribute audit effort across all government sectors and parliamentary committees to ensure fairness and prevent disproportionate scrutiny. This approach enables us to identify and report on systemic issues and trends.

Below is a snapshot of our planned audits and reports by focus area for the 2024‒25 financial year.

Visit our audit program webpage to see the topics for all 3 years, including a description of each, who we might audit, and audit status.

Our planning and approach

We revisit and publish a new version of our plan each year after reconsidering the importance of each topic, the timing of audits, and potential new focus areas, and assessing where our efforts will make a difference in public service delivery. We reflect changes or new audits on our audit program webpage.

In developing our plan for the coming years, we have noted the potential for the outcomes of state and local government elections in 2024 to impact on our planned audits. We may need to revisit our plan should there be a significant change in key government plans and priorities following these elections.

Topics that we are currently monitoring for potential inclusion in our plan include public sector entities’ and local governments’ preparedness for climate-related disclosures, management of grants programs, and changes to proposed venues and governance structures for the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games. We will consider these developments when planning our future audits.

Further information

You can view our Forward work plan 2024–27 on our website, including our planned audits for the next 3 years and an acquittal of our prior published plan: www.qao.qld.gov.au/audit-program.

Our fact sheet on Our forward work plan provides more information about our annual planning approach, including the intelligence sources we consider when selecting audit topics. We also have a fact sheet on How we prepare our reports to parliament.

Our recently published blog, How do we select what to audit each year? provides information on topic selection and the consultation process we follow.

We welcome, and value, direct input into our work. All Queenslanders are welcome to suggest an audit topic or contribute to an audit currently in progress on our website: Contribute to audits in Queensland.