The ANAO report on the Administration of the Australian Business Register (ABR) was released on Mon 23.6.2014. The objective of this audit was to assess the effectiveness of the administration of the Register.
As at 7 May 2014, the ABR held information relating to 10.8 million ABNs, of which 7.7 million were active. The report says there has been limited progress in achieving whole-of-government objectives for the ABR. There also continues to be acknowledged problems with the integrity of ABR data, particularly regarding the number of entities on the register and incomplete and inaccurate entity information on the ABR. The ANAO report said these shortcomings undermine the operation of the ABR as providing the “single source of truth for whole-of-government business registrations”. Accordingly, the ANAO said some 14 years after establishing the ABR, little real progress has been made by the ATO, in conjunction with ASIC, Industry and the Treasury, in achieving the goal of making it easier for business to deal with government through reducing business reporting and registration requirements and entry points to government.
The report made one recommendation, to which the ATO, ASIC and industry agreed. It was that to make it easier for business to deal with government, the ANAO recommended that the Registrar of the ABR works with ASIC, the Department of Industry and the Department of the Treasury to: (i) review the entry points to government; and (ii) develop and implement the most effective and efficient delivery mechanism for businesses to meet their registration and reporting requirements.
[LTN 118, 23/6/14]