 | Legal Aid Commission of Victoria and Office of the Valuer-General |
| Legal Aid Commission of Victoria and Office of the Valuer-General |
The audit of the operations of the Legal Aid Commission was undertaken following a request from the Victorian Attorney-General to conduct a performance audit as a matter of urgency prior to an organisational review of the Commission by both the State and Commonwealth Governments.
The audit identified that:
the Commission's method of assigning legal aid was unwieldy and uneconomic, often involving duplication of effort and record keeping, with the process adding 20 per cent to the average cost of a case; about 40 per cent of the Commission's legal assistance budget was spent on only 4 per cent of cases; and the provision of legal assistance to clients had fallen from 37,000 cases in 1986-87 to 30,000 in 1992-93.Part 2 of the Report reviewed the operations of the Office of the Valuer-General and was carried out as part of the Auditor-General's cyclical coverage of the operations of small government agencies. The review highlighted that: on average, only 55 per cent of valuations were completed within the Office's target of 4 weeks; legislative constraints prevented the Office from competing with the private sector; and the Office had difficulty ascertaining the full cost of performing its valuation services due to a poor management information system.
In its response to the Report, the Department of Finance indicated that a comprehensive review of the Office of the Valuer-General would be undertaken.
