Mar 12 - Lisa Allen

The NSW Audit Office has discovered a $143 million black hole in its estimates of the state's debtors position, which is almost certain to trigger a major slanging match with the NSW Government.

The Audit Office investigated the figures after questioning by shadow Treasurer Peter Debnam and The Australian Financial Review.

Auditor-General Bob Sendt yesterday took full responsibility for the errors.

The $143 million error was caused when the Audit Office understated the Department of Land & Water Conservation and the Rural Assistance Authority's debtors, details of which are provided each year to the NSW Parliamentary Accounts Committee.

Audit Office staff had "interpreted differently the scope of the summary of debtors' table". The errors in the information provided to Parliament on debtors will be corrected.

The summary of debt for the RAA should have read $83.91 million in the Auditor-General's report to parliament for 1999-2000 but was reported as $84,000.

The reported total of $10.18 million for the Department of Land & Water Conservation's trade debtors should have been $69.8 million.

The totals for debtors for June 30, 2000, that had not been "aged" should have read $319.5 million, not $176 million. Total debts should have been $832 million, not $689million.

"We will put in new, additional checking procedures to ensure there is no repeat of this," Mr Sendt said.

Mr Debnam said the corrected figures showed that 55 per cent of budget-dependent agencies' summary of debtors were overdue and that the state was carrying $104 million more in accounts receivable than a year ago.

He said at the end of 2000-01, $192.2 million of debts were overdue for more than days.

The Auditor-General also noted $381.6 million of debts were "not aged", which meant the Government did not know when the debts should have been collected.

The NSW Government agreed in November to extend the Auditor-General's reporting powers to cover probity, financial management and government waste, one working day before a damaging audit report was tabled in NSW Parliament. The much-abridged Volume 5 report revealed the extent of the cuts and the uncertainty created after NSW Treasurer Michael Egan sought advice from the Crown Solicitor last year regarding the Auditor-General's reporting powers.

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-- Anonymous, March 12, 2002