Info delayed

From today's report of the Auditor General:

In order for financial statement information to be useful to users, it should possess four principle characteristics - understandability, relevance, reliability and comparability. One of the ways relevance is achieved is by ensuring the information is received by users and decision makers in a timely manner. The usefulness of information for decision making declines as time elapses.

The Public Accounts for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012 were released on January 16, 2013, approximately 9½ months after the end of the year. The relevance of this information is considerably diminished and would be more useful if it was released earlier.

This is directed at the same government that takes nearly a year to issue electoral finance reports, spends months and years obfuscating reasonable requests for public information, and releases government-commissioned reports "within 30 days", where "30 days" means "a year".

So, good luck with that subtle advice, Mr. A-G.