“ Performance and Transparency : Are Australia ’ s “ Leading Edge ” Systems Really Working ? ”

Since the early 1990’s the general and financial management of the Victorian public sector has been significantly transformed. This research constructs and explains the content, nature and quality of non-financial disclosures, including those related to performance indicators via a disclosure indicator analysis (DIA) of actual reporting practices in recent Government Budget papers. It reports the results of its application to the last three years’ budget papers. The findings highlight the 'turmoil' in the reporting of non-financial performance indicators in the Victorian Budget papers. These results indicate a significant gap between "official" expectations of the type of items required to be reported and actual budgetary reporting practices some many years after regulation and major financial accountability reforms have taken place.