Unless an exemption applies, applications for permits covering both the

ANAO Report No.3 2015–16 Regulation of Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Permits and Approvals 50 may have illegally restricted the use of part of the Marine Park by the public. In relation to the only publicly advertised application, evidence has not been retained to indicate that GBRMPA complied with its guidelines to consult with its Communications Unit on the draft text of the proposed advertisement or publish a copy of the advertisement on its website. Management of permit application processing

2.27 To manage permit application processing requirements, GBRMPA has

developed checksheets to document the completion of key processing steps from the receipt of applications to the issuing of permits to approved applicants, and the follow-up of any post-approval requirements such as the execution of deeds and submission of bonds, where applicable. The checksheets are to be completed by permit assessment officers as the application progresses and provide a sound basis for monitoring whether all relevant steps in the permit assessment process have been undertaken. However, in practice, the checksheets were generally incomplete. Of the 79 permit application assessments examined by the ANAO: • permit processing checksheets were not preparedretained for four applications examined 5.1 per cent—all of which relate to non-routine applications that involve complex processing requirements; • 42 of the 75 checksheets 56 per cent contained gaps evidencing the satisfactory processing of the permit applications by assessment officers including in relation to comments from native title bodies, referrals tofrom QPWS, further information requests and the relevance addressing of certain requirements applying to particular applications.

2.28 With the exception of research applications, the work of assessment

officers is to be reviewed within the EAP Section once the permit application assessment process is completed and prior to the preparation of the permit application assessment report. Evidence of the review is to be documented on the permit processing checksheet. While checksheets generally record the review of permit application processing, the significant gaps in the completeness of many of the certified checksheets noted above reduces the effectiveness of this review as a quality assurance tool for GBRMPA’s permit processing.