74Annual plan to be laid before Parliament

74 Annual plan to be laid before Parliament

(1) The clerk of each House of the Parliament must cause the annual plan to be laid before the House on the day on which it is received or on the next sitting day of the House.

(2) If the Auditor-General proposes to transmit an annual plan to the Parliament under section 73 at a time when a House of the Parliament is not likely to sit between then and the beginning of the financial year to which the annual plan relates, the Auditor-General must—

(a) give one business day's notice of the Auditor-General's intention to do so to the clerk of each House of the Parliament; and

(b) give the annual plan to the clerk of each House on the day indicated in the notice; and

(c) publish the annual plan on the Auditor-General's website on the day after giving it to the clerk of each House.

(3) The clerk of each House must—

(a) notify each member of the House of the receipt of a notice under subsection (2)(a) on the same day that the clerk receives that notice; and

(b) give a copy of the annual plan to each member of the House as soon as practicable after the annual plan is received under subsection (2)(b); and

(c) cause the annual plan to be laid before the House on the next sitting day of the House.

(4) An annual plan that is given to the clerk of each House under subsection (2)(b) is taken to have been published by order, or under the authority, of the Parliament.

(5) The publication of an annual plan by the Auditor-General under subsection (2)(c) is absolutely privileged and the provisions of sections 73 and 74 of the Constitution Act 1975 and any other enactment or rule of law relating to the publication of the proceedings of the Parliament apply to, and in relation to, the publication of the annual plan as if it—

(a) were a report to which those sections applied; and

(b) had been published by the Government Printer under the authority of the Parliament.

S. 75 inserted by No. 12/2019 s. 9.