When CSU’s annual report was not tabled in parliament on the due date the conspireatron went into over-drive. The real reason is mundane, just embarrassing

NSW Auditor General Margaret Crawford explains the delay in her report to parliament on university annual reports.

CSU had filed its financial statements but had to withdraw them because it misunderstood, “the new accounting standard in relation to recognising grant funding revenue for construction work.”

Of which, Ms Crawford takes a dim view indeed, “we recommend the university address the root cause of these errors, and put in place controls for sign-offs by the operational, legal and accounting teams so that the risks related to contracts are known prior to execution.”

She also reports CSU’s payroll system has under and over paid staff to an extent, “yet to be quantified” – which also needs fixing.

But as for suggestions of the bailiffs being on the way for the furniture, CSU is in rare company having a positive $19m net result last year. This is in line with Western Sydney U, (although way behind Uni Sydney’s $109m).