Recommendation 24

We expect the COVID-19 pandemic to exacerbate these challenges to the timely production of the WGA in future. The Treasury accepted that it can only start to produce the account once it receives a critical mass of audited returns from bodies and that COVID-19 and issues in the local audit market will present significant challenges in producing the WGA 2019–20. Returns for WGA are audited and based on bodies’ statutory accounts. At the date of our evidence session in November last year, there were still four major government departments which had not yet published their statutory accounts for 2019–20.50 The Treasury expected that OSCAR II will be able to produce the consolidation much more quickly once data returns have been received, however the OSCAR II consolidation module was not yet operational.51 47 WGA 2018–19, pp 37–47, 60–62 48 WGA 2018–19, p 186 49 WGA 2018–19, p 186; Redmond Review, p 1 50 Qq 99, 108 51 Qq 88, 99 Whole of Government Accounts 2018–19 15