Financial Statements

Year Ended 30 June 1996

Coopers & Lybrand
Chartered Accountants and Business Advisers

Coopers & Lybrand House
53 Blackall Street
BARTON ACT 2600

Postal Address:
PO Box E447
Queen Victoria Terrace
BARTON ACT 2600

Phone (06) 270 1555
Fax (06) 270 1666

dx 5657 Canberra

Independent Review Report To The Board Members Of The Australian Maritime Safety Authority

Scope

We have reviewed the financial statements of the National Plan to Combat Pollution of the Sea by Oil ("the National Plan") for the year ended 30 June 1996 in accordance with the procedures requested by you and described below. Management of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority ("the Authority") are responsible for the preparation and presentation of the financial statements and the information contained therein. We have performed a review of the financial statements in order to state whether, on the basis of the procedures described, anything has come to our attention that would indicate that the financial statements are not presented fairly in accordance with the basis of accounting described in the notes to the financial statements.

The financial statements have been prepared for distribution to members of the National Plan Advisory Committee to account for the cost of National Plan administration by the Authority. We disclaim any assumption of responsibility for any reliance on this review report or on the financial statements to which it relates to any persons other than the Board Members of the Authority or the members of the National Plan Advisory Committee.

Our review has been conducted in accordance with Statement of Auditing Practice/Related Services AUP/RSI "Review Engagements" and Statement of Auditing Practice/Related Services AUP/RS2 "Engagements to Perform Agreed Upon Procedures".

The procedures requested to be performed were:

1. verify that the profit and loss statement, balance sheet and statement of cash flows are correctly extracted and summarised from the books and records of the Authority, and

2. assess whether the significant assumptions and assertions used in the preparation of the financial statements are reasonable.

Our review was therefore limited primarily to comparison of the profit and loss statement, balance sheet and statement of cash flows to the books and records of the Authority, together with inquiries of Authority personnel and analytical procedures applied to assess the reasonability of the assumptions and assertions used in the preparation of the financial statements. These procedures do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, thus the level of assurance provided is less than given in an audit. We have not performed an audit and, accordingly, we do not express an audit opinion.

Statement

Based on our review, which is not an audit, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the financial statements of the National Plan for the year ended 30 June 1996 do not present fairly the National Plan's financial position and the results of its operations and cashflows for the year then ended in accordance with the basis of accounting described in the notes to the financial statements.

Canberra, 20 September 1996

Coopers & Lybrand
Chartered Accountants
R P McMullin
Partner

Coopers & Lybrand is a member firm of Coopers & Lybrand International, an association incorporated with limited liability.

Profit and Loss Statement

For the year ended 30 June 1996

The accompanying notes form an integral part of these Statements.

  Balance Sheet as at 30 June 1996

The accompanying notes form an integral part of these Statements

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the Year Ended 30 June 1996

The financial statements have been prepared on a full accrual accounting basis, in accordance with relevant Accounting Standards and other mandatory professional reporting requirements (Urgent Issues Group Consensus Views). Except for certain assets which, as noted, are at valuation, the financial statements are prepared in accordance with the historical cost convention.

The financial statements have been extracted from the books and records of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, and they represent the Authority's income and expenditure, and assets and liabilities in managing the National Plan. They do not include the income, expenses, assets or liabilities of third parties involved in National Plan activities.

Reclassification of comparatives

Where necessary, comparative figures have been adjusted to conform with changes in presentation in these financial statements.

1 Incident Costs and Recoveries

This large increase in incident revenue and expenditure is mainly attributable to the Iron Baron incident, which contributed $635,043 to direct expenses and $865,239 to revenue.

2 Interest Income

Interest income is calculated on the estimated average cash balance each month. The cash balance has increased due to less capital expenditure in this financial year in comparison to last financial year.

3 Staff Costs

Staff costs include the estimated proportion of the Marine Environment Protection Services' staff costs attributable to National Plan activities.

The reduction of costs is mainly due to the shortage of one staff member for five months of this financial year.

4 Occupancy Costs

Occupancy costs include storage costs of equipment and estimated accommodation costs of National Plan staff.

5 Accounting Fees

This expense relates to the charge by Coopers & Lybrand to review the National Plan financial statements.

6 Overheads

Overheads are the estimated share of the Authority's corporate and head office costs attributable to National Plan activities. This includes the proportion of actual expenditures for the Board, Internal Audit, as well as the Divisions comprising Strategic Development, Corporate and Commercial Services, and the Executive. Allocation of overheads for 1996 have varied from the 1995 costs primarily due to overall salary increases emanating from the Authority's Enterprise Bargaining Agreement and a full year's effect of operating the new Financial and Management Information System (1995: 9 months).

7 Depreciation

Depreciation is calculated on a straight line basis to write off the net cost or revalued amount of each item of Property, Plant and Equipment over its expected useful life. Estimates of remaining life of equipment are made on a regular basis for all assets.

14 Contingencies

In the normal course of operations, the Authority is responsible for the provision of funds necessary to meet the clean up cost arising from ship sourced marine pollution. The Commonwealth has agreed that the Authority's responsibility should be limited to a maximum outlay of $10 million. In the event of costs above that limit, funds will be provided by the Commonwealth. The Authority has now entered into a stand by loan facility for this purpose (refer Note 15). In all circumstances the Authority is responsible in accordance with the National Plan Administrative Arrangements for making appropriate efforts to recover the costs of any such incidents.

15 Subsequent Events

On 18 July 1996, a response to a potential Tier 2 oil spill was put in place following the grounding on Piper Reef, North Queensland, of the refrigerated cargo ship "Peacock". At the date of this report, the Authority's share of total costs arising from contingency plans put in place have been estimated at $135,000. The Authority is taking appropriate action in accordance with the National Plan Administrative Arrangements to recover all relevant costs from the owners of the vessel.

In September 1996, the Authority entered into a stand by loan facility of up to $10 million for the provision of emergency funds to meet the upfront costs of maritime oil pollution incidents, resulting from a reduction in the Authority's cash reserves after repayment of the Commonwealth loan.

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