To inform the ACT Legislative Assembly and community on the quality of financial and performance reporting in the Territory and highlight the Territory’s financial performance, key accountability indicators and significant audit findings.

• The quality of financial and performance reporting in the Territory remains high.
• The Territory faces significant fiscal challenges that require strong budget and debt management going forward.
• Agencies need to give greater attention to resolving weaknesses identified during their audits in a timelier manner.

• All agency and the Territory’s financial statements received an unmodified auditor’s report and all but one agency received an unmodified limited assurance report on their statement of performance.
• The Territory’s net operating deficit of $1.5 billion in 2024-25 was $497 million above budget and has increased by 133 percent since 2020-21.
• The Territory’s growth in expenses has outpaced revenue growth in most years, driving persistent operating deficits. This highlights structural challenges and reinforces the need for tighter cost controls and efficiency measures to restore fiscal sustainability over the longer term.
• In the absence of strong action to return the budget to a meaningful surplus position, the credit rating is in danger of deteriorating further.
• While the number of audit findings reported to agencies decreased from 92 to 75, 40 relate to prior years, indicating agencies need to address issues more promptly.
• Over half of all audit findings relate to weaknesses identified in controls over IT systems used for financial reporting, particularly in relation to user access management, audit logging, system security documentation.

• Significant observations were made in the report and no recommendations were included.
• Specific recommendations relating to audit findings were made to the relevant agencies as part of the audit of their financial statements.