The change in strategy for addressing Auditor General and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) recommendations that the Deputy Governor outlined at last week’s PAC hearings aims to build a stronger, more effective system of public accountability for the future.
This message was conveyed by Hon. Gloria McField-Nixon in her opening statement to the Committee on Tuesday 8 September. The Deputy Governor was the first witness at the PAC’s two-day hearings on the Office of the Auditor General’s (OAG) Report, “Summary of Outstanding OAG and PAC Recommendations”. That report, published in April 2026, detailed the “status of Government Minutes responding to PAC reports and all outstanding OAG and PAC recommendations as at 15 March 2026.”
Mrs McField-Nixon acknowledged the Civil Service’s shortfall in resolving and or reporting on the outstanding recommendations. She explained the causes, the work that was being done, progress made and the approach now being taken.
The Deputy Governor told the Committee that, since taking up her new role, a central focus had been on addressing the backlog highlighted in the OAG report and putting a framework in place to prevent a recurrence going forward. She stressed her commitment to accountability, noting that, “the Civil Service must take responsibility for delivering agreed improvements and following through on commitments made, to this Committee and to the public.” However, an examination of the root causes for the delays had identified “structural issues that would have hindered implementation and closing” of many of the recommendations.
This assessment, the Deputy Governor said, had led to the Office of the Deputy Governor (ODG) and the Civil Service senior leadership agreeing a new model for engaging and managing not just past OAG and PAC recommendations but the approach to clearing new reports. The ODG had also engaged with the Auditor General to gain agreement on this approach.
At the same time, the relevant public service entities had worked to close historical recommendations. They had done this by completing many of the recommendations that had been near-complete, by documenting more effective means that had been identified for addressing risks and by explicitly stating where Government had chosen to accept a risk and not to proceed.
Further, the Deputy Governor’s Office had deployed a digital tracking tool. This platform brings all recommendations together, including ones that cut across the entire public service. It allows responsibilities to be assigned to the correct persons and to be centrally monitored and managed. Implementing this tool was helping to identify issues that could cause delays, and was facilitating collaboration. Going forward, Chief Officers will report annually through the tool and provide ongoing updates through standing leadership meetings. Mrs McField-Nixon shared that this strategy “represents an important shift from a largely reactive approach to active management of recommendations.”
A key part of dealing with the outstanding recommendations, and guiding the approach to future ones, was prioritistion based on the assessment of risk. Emphasising that not all recommendations carry the same level of risk, the Deputy Governor told the PAC: “Our objective should therefore be a more risk-based approach—one that gives greatest attention to recommendations that present the greatest potential impact to public services, public resources and public confidence. I believe there is an opportunity for the Civil Service, the Committee and the OAG to work together to strengthen that approach.
“Ultimately, we should measure success not simply by how many recommendations we can mark “closed”, but by whether they have resulted in stronger controls, better performance and better protection of public resources.”
The Deputy Governor said she was encouraged by the results of the new strategy. The backlog of Government Minutes identified by the Auditor General’s Office are set to be tabled during the Parliament’s meeting which starts on 30 September. She said that her office had received responses for near 100% of the outstanding recommendations, with the few remaining responses expected this week. Later this month, once they complete the internal quality assurance process, the Deputy Governor’s Office will provide the Auditor General’s team with access to all the responses and supporting evidence for their own independent review.