What's new?
This document updates the Preparing the Annual Report - Guidance and Requirements for Crown Entities June 2012. The changes made since the last release are:
- In May 2013, the External Reporting Board (XRB) issued a package of new standards that will apply to public sector public benefit entities (including departments and Offices of Parliament) from the 2014/15 financial year. These new standards do not affect the preparation of the 2012/13 annual report. (refer section 2.5).
- A copy of the current Technical Practice Aid (TPA) No.9 Service Performance Reporting (repackaged) is now available as Appendix C of PBE IPSAS 1 Presentation of Financial Statements issued by the XRB (as part of the new package of standards mentioned above). As an interim measure, the XRB incorporated TPA No.9 as guidance in the new package, while they work on a project to develop a standard on service performance reporting (refer section 2.5).
- In section 2.5.2 Exemption from the Statement of Service Performance Requirement, the reference to guidance being issued on the process for a Crown entity to apply for an exemption has been removed. Due to the review of the Crown Entities Act 2004 (CEA), no guidance on this process was promulgated.
- The State Services Commissioner's report on the remuneration of chief executives and other senior personnel in the Public Service and State sector, which has previously been provided as part of the State Services Commission's (SSC) annual report, is now published online only, through the SSC website. The publication of this information does not remove the responsibility from Crown entities to publish in their own annual reports all the information required under section 152 of the CEA (refer section 2.8.2).
- On 19 June 2013, the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives issued an updated Presentation of Papers to the House circular. The process for presenting papers to the House has not changed but the number of hard copies required has.
- Hyperlinks have been updated and some minor corrections have been made.
Other new information included in this document:
- The amendments to the State Sector Act 1988, the Public Finance Act 1989 (PFA) and the Crown Entities Act 2004 being made by the State Sector and Public Finance Reform Bill to support the Better Public Services reform programme. The CEA amendments do not affect the preparation of the 2012/13 annual report.
- The PFA and CEA amendments will support more meaningful information being provided to Parliament.
- An annex has been added to this document to support Crown entities thinking about how to incorporate the opportunities into their planning for 2014/15 and subsequent years.
- Over the coming weeks and months, the Treasury is planning a series of communications and implementation activities to support agencies in understanding and applying the amendments.
