Account moves ‘unusual’

AN Auditor-General report has found the Treasurer exempted transactions involving Forestry Tasmania and the Mersey Community Hospital from standard accounting practices.

Auditor-General Rod Whitehead’s review of government businesses' financial statements has revealed the Treasurer’s instructions overriding Australian Accounting Standards.

The instructions related to disclosure over the $61 million sale of Forestry Tasmania plantations and the transfer of $730 million in Federal Government funding for the Mersey to Tascorp. Mr Whitehead said the actions were allowable but unusual.

“The process ... should only be used in rare circumstances where changes to the reporting framework are necessary in order to present more reliable information to users,” he said.

Mr Whitehead analysed the financial position and performance of 17 government businesses.

He found a combined underlying result of $425 million, an improvement of $158 million on 2015-16.

Government businesses returned $312 million to the Tasmanian Government and TasWater $30 million to its council owners.

Some businesses continued to rely on government funding or commercial support to be sustainable, Mr Whitehead found, and were unlikely to generate sufficient profit to provide future returns to Government.

“The ‘for-profit’ corporate structures for these entities may not be appropriate unless a significant improvement in their financial performance is expected to occur,” he said.

These could include Irrigation Tasmania and Metro, Mr Whitehead said.