Air passengers may be spared spraying

Press, 10 January 1986, Page 17

Air passengers may be spared spraying

By ANNE JAMISON NZPA-AAP Canberra Some air passengers may be spared spraying by quarantine services on arrival in Australia if the recommendations of an efficiency audit are implemented. The Auditor-General, Mr John Monaghan, released the report along with the result of efficiency audits of the Australian Wool Corporation and the A.C.T. bus network.

The audit of quarantine services recommended an urgent evaluation of all aspects of quarantine processing of aircraft arriving in Australia, including the possibility of using selective spraying.

It found that present procedures caused delays in the disembarkation of passengers, were labour-intensive and, expensive, and not fully effective in preventing the importation of disease, vectors and pests. A big deficiency in passenger clearance was the absence from the quarantine declaration form of any questions relating to human quarantine, the audit concluded. It recommended that the declaration form be amended and said there was scope for clearance of passengers to be undertaken by other agencies on behalf of the Department of Health. An interdepartmental review was considering this.

The Australian Wool Corporation’s management of wool stores had not always been to the over-all benefit of Australian woolgrowers, an efficiency audit found.

The audit of the Wool Corporation’s property operations revealed that its Market Support Fund had been charged market rental rates for storage capacity it had not used.

In 1980-81 the fund paid sAustl.9 million ($2.29 million) for dedicated storage capacity of which it used only 20 per cent. “Audit considered that a reduction in the dedicated storage capacity by 50 per cent, assuming the same sub-leasing revenue could have been obtained, would have resulted in a saving to the M.S.F. of sAustl million ($1.21 million),” Mr Monaghan said. “If the storage capacity freed could not have been let commercially, the cost would have been borne by the corporation.”

Audit recommended that the corporation consider making more stores available for both wool storage and commercial tenancy. Efforts needed to be made to improve the efficiency of the A.C.T. bus network (ACTION), an efficiency audit concluded.

“Standards of performance in key activities should be developed and applied, and comparisons should be made in respect of those activities with other metropolitan transport operators,” Mr Monaghan said.

He said ACTION’S operating expenditure and deficit, which influenced the setting of fares, were understated because it was not charged interest on funds provided for capital equipment, and no charge was made for accommodation and computer facilities provided by the Department of Territories. Including these concessional services in costed items brought the current recovery rate of fares to only 26 per cent, the audit found.