Commonwealth Numbered Acts

COMMONWEALTH AUTHORITIES AND COMPANIES ACT 1997 No. 153 of 1997 - SECT 12

(1) Subject to subsection (4), the directors of a Commonwealth authority must
do whatever is necessary to ensure that all relevant subsidiary's financial
statements are audited by the Auditor- General.

(2) For a subsidiary that is a Corporations Law company that, under the
Corporations Law, is required to have those statements audited, the
Auditor-General's report on the subsidiary's financial statements must be
prepared using the relevant rules in the Corporations Law. Those rules must
also be used for other subsidiaries, so far as is practicable.

(3) The Auditor-General must give the report to the responsible Minister,
together with a copy of the relevant subsidiary's financial statements.

(4) Relevant financial statements of a subsidiary do not have to be audited by
the Auditor-General if:

   (a)  the subsidiary is incorporated or formed in a place outside Australia;
        and

   (b)  either:

        (i)    under the law applying to the subsidiary in that place, the
               Auditor-General cannot be appointed as auditor of the
               subsidiary; or

        (ii)   in the Auditor-General's opinion, it is impracticable or
               unreasonable for the Auditor-General to audit, or to be
               required to audit, the statements.

(5) In this section:
relevant subsidiary's financial statements, in relation to a Commonwealth
authority, means financial statements of an entity for an annual accounting
period of the entity, where the entity is a subsidiary of the authority at the
end of that accounting period.