A report that analysed the results of audits of financial statements of the Transport NSW cluster has identified 30 unique opportunities for agencies to improve IT processes and controls.
The report from the Auditor-General for New South Wales, Margaret Crawford, showed key observations and findings from the 30 June 2018 financial statement audits.
According to Crawford's report those IT processes and controls support the integrity of financial data used to prepare agencies’ financial statements.
For example, the total number of Opal cards with negative balances increased from 776,771 to 1.1 million with $3.8 million in revenue not collected during 2017-18.
A total of $7.8 million of revenue remains uncollected from negative balance cards.
"Transport for NSW advises it is liaising with the ticketing vendor to implement system changes and are investigating other ways to reduce the occurrences."
The report noted IT issues associated with user access administration and privileged user activities. The report also found that 49 per cent of reported deficiencies were information technology related.
"Rectifying certain IT deficiencies can take longer than rectifying other control deficiencies. IT fixes may require program changes, system testing and interruptions to services," stated the report.
"However, until they are addressed, vulnerabilities may be exploited by internal and external parties and pose a threat to agencies."
This report was developed to provide Parliament and other users of the Transport cluster’s financial statements with the results of the Auditor-General's audits, observations, analysis, conclusions and recommendations in financial reporting and audit observations.
