Auditor-General refuses to sign off on Batchelor Institute’s misleading financial report

The Auditor-General has refused to sign off on a tertiary provider’s financial statements. Read why she is concerned.

The Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education main campus located 100 km south of Darwin, Northern Territory. Picture: Justin Kennedy

A key scrutiny watchdog has found a Top End education provider failed to give enough believable supporting evidence for its 2022 financial statements.

In examining the Batchelor Institute’s statements, Auditor-General Julie Crisp found the tertiary body could not supply enough reliable evidence to support its student funding, employee-related expenses, and “other” income and revenue figures.

Ms Crisp’s report – tabled to parliament in May – also noted it was likely the values attributed to the Institute’s property, plant, and equipment were likely “materially misstated” in its statement of financial position for the year ending December 31, 2022.

Her report stated the Institute’s property, plant, and equipment had not been revalued since the 2017 financial year, and recent “price escalation and global impacts” meant the assets’ value had likely changed since then.

Ms Crisp subsequently stated a disclaimer of opinion in her report in relation to the financial statements for the second year in a row.

She said her 2021 audit found “significant deficiencies” in the Institute’s governance practices, risk management, monitoring processes, internal controls of the financial reporting process, general information controls, and an absence of controls over student records.

“My audit of the financial statements for the (2022 financial year) confirmed that these deficiencies had not been addressed during,” Ms Crisp said.

“The internal control and process weaknesses are pervasive and not confined to specific elements, account balances or items within the financial statements.

“As a result, I was unable to place reliance on the implementation and effectiveness of controls during the period.”

Commenting in Ms Crisp’s report, the Batchelor Institute said it realised its 2022 financial statements would echo the deficiencies of 2021.

“As it was then 2023, we could not go back into 2022 and improve this situation,” it wrote.

A Batchelor Institute spokesperson told the NT News they believed its 2022 annual financial statement was an “accurate reflection of the Institute’s financial position at that point in time”.

“In 2023 and 2024, Batchelor Institute has done a considerable amount of work in reviewing its policies, procedures and financial reporting,” the spokesperson said.

“The Batchelor Institute has completed an asset management audit to ensure the completeness and accuracy of its asset records and registers.”

The spokesperson said the Institute was on track to submit its 2023 annual report and financial statements to Education Minister Mark Monaghan next month.

It comes just after the Institute appointed former Northern Land Council chief executive Joe Martin-Jard to its helm.

Mr Martin-Jard was given 24 hours to clear out his office at the NLC in March, 10 months before his three-year contract was set to expire.

The new CEO had been grilled at February’s Senate Estimates regarding his $460,611 salary and his relationship with NLC senior policy adviser, Deborah Katona.