Public service agencies are not responding to Parliament's reports scrutinising their work on time, leaving some unanswered for more than 100 months, a national audit has found.
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The auditor-general's office has also failed four federal agencies tested on their response to its previous inquiries, saying there was no evidence they had followed its advice.
Despite audits three years ago urging change, the Agriculture and Infrastructure departments, government corporation Airservices Australia, and the pesticides authority, all disappointed in the follow-up.
Federal agencies were leaving the findings of parliamentary committees in reports overseeing their spending and performance unanswered for up to 191 months in the most extreme case.
Others had answered in up to 77 months despite a three-month deadline to write back to MPs who had scrutinised them with hearings and reports.
When a response was received for a report presented to the Senate, only 2 per cent met the required three-month timeframe.
For reports presented to the lower house, only 4 per cent received government responses within the six-month deadline.
Neither the Agriculture Department nor Infrastructure could show they had followed all the recommendations despite inquiries conducted by MPs, and their work writing reports about the departments.
The findings prompted the audit office to recommend the Prime Minister's Department pull public service agencies back into line, saying it should "reinforce the responsibility of accountable authorities to monitor and implement agreed parliamentary committee recommendations".
Outgoing head of the Prime Minister's Department, Martin Parkinson, agreed and told auditor-general Grant Hehir he would remind all departmental bosses they were obliged to make agreed changes recommended by MPs and respond to parliamentary inquiry reports on time.
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"The presentation of documents is an important component of the government's accountability to the Parliament and the broader community," Dr Parkinson said.
None of the four Commonwealth agencies scrutinised again showed they had implemented Australian National Audit Office recommendations from past audits, the auditor found.
The auditor in 2016-17 recommended changes to Airservices' contracting after it found its system failed to give value for money.
The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority copped criticism in a report that year into its regulatory work, and the audit office criticised the Infrastructure Department's advice to ministers about the WestConnex project.
All agencies agreed to its recommendations to act on the old audit report findings and improve how they responded to parliamentary inquiries.
Only Airservices rejected one of the new recommendations, saying it had finished making changes improving its contracting.