How We Think

The word ‘audit’ can often invoke anxiety for many individuals and businesses. On top of the anxiety, not knowing what to expect during the audit process can create apprehension. Apprehension leads to worry. Worry leads to potential and actual errors in financial or other records, as well as compliance issues. All of those issues can be uncovered during an audit, along with ‘unforced errors’ that may not paint a fulsome picture of your organisation, its staff and operating procedures. Audits also require significant time and resources to prepare for, which may disrupt regular operations. For individuals without much experience with or about audits, this can increase uncertainty about how to prepare and what will be evaluated. Those factors will exacerbate the inherent worry, anxiety and apprehensions that will arrive with the auditors.

Bias, fraud and corruption happen. And in every culture, country and industry. Australia is no exception to that rule, nor is government immune as an industry, particularly considering the sheer scale of Commonwealth and State Governments’ procurement activities.

The world of commercial negotiations is a complex one, where negotiators regularly grapple with a central dilemma - how do we achieve the best deal without sacrificing our personal integrity?

In a recent meeting, I mentioned to a colleague that one of their clients might benefit from undertaking a ‘Greenbelt Project’ and by applying Lean Six Sigma (L6S) principles to the client’s administrative practices. Cue the blank looks from my colleague.

To deliberate or to disclose? That is also the question that has vexed Freedom of Information (FOI) decision-makers since the very first days of the Freedom of Information Act, 1982 (the FOI Act) and continues to confound us in 2024. For those uninitiated in the FOI world, ‘deliberative matter’ is a conditional exemption that seeks to protect the Commonwealth Government, its Ministers and Australian Public Service (APS) staff members’ ‘thinking space.’

The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) recently highlighted several crucial lessons in their “Audit Lessons” on Grants Administration. While managing grants may not always be front of mind, it remains one of the most impactful ways for the Commonwealth to achieve targeted policy outcomes.