3. Management and accountability
Finance
The 2004–05 budget appropriation was $7.764 million and received an additional $8000 for the United States Free Trade Agreement at the mid year Additional Estimates resulting in a final Budget appropriation of $7.772 million.
Late in the financial year, PSR returned $5 million to the Department of Finance and Administration because it had no need for the level of cash reserves that had accumulated. The level of cash reserve is a result of the PSR scheme being so litigious with approximately one-third of our cases going to Federal Court action. While PSR has won the vast majority of cases in the courts, the few that have been lost have had a great effect, halting and disrupting, progress on other cases. The adverse effects of Pradhan and then Daniel have had a big impact on PSR being able to progress its core business.
PSR has not been able to work through a full year cycle without legal obstacles blocking progress to some extent. As a consequence of these Federal Court decisions and prudent financial management, PSR had accumulated considerable cash reserves.
In March, PSR moved its general ledger and budget control processes in-house to the Great Plains Financial Information Management System software. This has given PSR greater control over its finances, especially in the payment of accounts.
During 2004–05 PSR continued to assess payroll functions provided through the Department of Health and Ageing’s SAP system. A decision was taken late in the financial year to move to an outsourced payroll arrangement provided by a national solutions company, Ross Logic.
Ascent has been appointed to rewrite PSR’s Chief Executive Instructions and Procedural Rules following the change of these internal processes.
The Australian National Audit Office’s report on our 2004–05 financial statements was unqualified and was signed on 16 September 2005 (see Appendix 1).