9 October 2003

The Australian Electoral Commissioner, Mr Andy Becker announced today that the Australian Electoral Commission's 2002-2003 Annual Report was now available on the AEC's website, following its tabling in Federal Parliament.

"The annual report describes a demanding, yet effective and productive year for the AEC," Mr Becker said.

"It was a busy operational year with the conduct of the Cunningham by-election, the fifth ATSIC Regional Council elections and with electoral assistance provided for several interstate and overseas elections."

The annual report documents the AEC's organisational performance during the financial year ending 30 June 2003, and includes the audited financial statements for this period.

"The AEC's financial position was a significant issue throughout the year, and required the organisation to operate with a high level of stringency," Mr Becker said.

Mr Becker also took the opportunity to advise of actions taken to correct a financial reporting error in the AEC's Portfolio Budget Statement (PBS) for the 2003-2004 financial year.

"Whilst the total appropriation amount reported for the AEC was correct, the allocation of the total resources between the AEC's three core business outcomes was incorrectly reported in the PBS," he said.

"Basically the dollar resources reported against Outcome 1 (An effective electoral roll) was overstated by $3.043 million and the resources reported for Outcome 3 (An Informed Community) was understated by the same amount."

"In fact, the actual resources budgeted for Outcome 1 and Outcome 3 for the 2003-2004 financial year are virtually identical to the expenditure of these outcomes in the 2002-2003 financial year."

"At the end of the day, the AEC bottom line was not affected," Mr Becker added.

The PBS was issued on 13 May 2003, and the reporting error was publicly clarified during the May Senate Estimates Committee's Hearings. In accordance with reporting requirements, this allocation error will be officially corrected in the Portfolio Additional Estimates Statements due by 14 October 2003.

The AEC's Annual Report is available on the AEC's website at www.aec.gov.au or by contacting the AEC on 02 6271 4411.

Media Contacts:

Phil Diak
Acting Assistant Commissioner,
Information, Education and Research
Ph. (02) 6271 4477