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OVERVIEW

The Auditor-General’s report, Agricultural science research, development and extension programs and projects was tabled on 19 November and referred to the committee on 1 December 2015 for consideration and report. The report presents the findings of a performance audit by the Queensland Audit Office to establish whether Agri-Science Queensland's (ASQ) agricultural science research, development and extension (RD&E) programs and projects support economic growth and contribute to an efficient, innovative and profitable sector.

The audit addressed the objective through the following sub-objectives:

• Determine whether a strategic framework aligns agricultural RD&E investment to state and national priorities
• Establish whether ASQ manages its RD&E projects well to achieve their objectives and deliver the intended benefits.

The Auditor-General's recommendations

1. Improves its RD&E plan so that it is sufficiently detailed to enable ASQ to make consistent and transparent investment decisions, including:

• identifying the outcomes the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) seeks to achieve over the next 10 years (DAF's strategic objectives) and how they align to other state, national and industry priorities
• defining DAF's investment criteria or principles to select which RD&E projects and programs to invest in
• identifying the skills and capability required to deliver current and future projects
• providing guidance on how DAF will prioritise when resource-constrained
• outlining how DAF will measure, monitor, and report progress towards achieving its strategic objectives.

2. Reviews the ASQ portfolio of RD&E projects at appropriate intervals to ensure: 

• the projects still align to DAF's strategic priorities
• the projects will achieve or contribute to DAF's strategic objectives.

3. Schedules evaluations of significant RD&E projects and/or programs to ensure the portfolio of projects is achieving strategic objectives, having an impact and ultimately benefiting industry and the community.

4. Implements a robust project management system that assists staff to manage RD&E projects and enables ASQ to manage and monitor the portfolio of projects, including:

• scalable project planning based on the nature, size, cost and risks associated with the project
• a monitoring and reporting framework to track project delivery against the plan
• consistent, accurate and comprehensive capture of project data for portfolio monitoring, reporting and evaluation
• finalises and implements ASQ's project management guidelines and train relevant staff as required.

DAF, in its response to the report dated 28 October 2015, agreed to the Auditor-General’s five recommendations.

Consideration by the committee

On 20 April 2016, the committee received private briefings by the Queensland Audit Office (audit methodology and findings) and DAF (the audit findings and the implementation of recommendations).

The department has agreed to implement all recommendations from the audit report, and the committee is satisfied with the progress being made.

The committee does not propose to conduct further work on this audit report.