The Southern District Health Board's management controls still need major improvement, the Office of the Auditor-general says.
The observation is made in a newly released briefing report for Parliament's health select committee.
The report was written for MPs to advise them before the SDHB's annual review hearing at the committee. The board appeared in early March.
The report repeated the ''needs improvement'' assessment it made of SDHB's management controls in its 2016-17 edition.
It emphasised the ''needs improvement'' rating was not an assessment of overall management performance or the SDHB's effectiveness in meeting targets.
In the past 12 months, sounder budgeting processes had been introduced, but asset management, risk management, IT control and better contract management procedures should be introduced at the earliest reasonable opportunity, the report said.
The report also warned continuing poor financial performance meant the SDHB's predicted return to surplus in 2021 had been jeopardised.
The Auditor-general noted while the SDHB had recorded deficits in both 2015-16 and 2016-17, those financial results were within budget.
''In contrast, the deficit for 2017-18 of $21.378million, although slightly smaller than that for 2016-17, is significantly higher than the budgeted deficit of $14 million,'' the report said.
When the report was written, the most recent SDHB Statement of Performance Expectations had predicted a return to surplus in 2020-21. A new SPE has since been released,predicting the organisation's deficit would continue dropping and reach just under $5 million in 2020-21.
''The commissioner and deputy commissioner are fully aware that continued focus is needed on improved budgetary control and monitoring processes to achieve budgeted savings and enable investment in new initiatives, services and infrastructure and have been making decisions on this basis.''
The report praised the SDHB for having improved its National Health Targets results and being either at or close to target.
However, it noted improvement was needed regarding specialist mental health and primary health care measures.
It also raised questions about the Primary and Community Care strategy launched last year by the SDHB and WellSouth.
''This is a significant, ambitious strategy which is intended to lead to a health system that is more co-ordinated, accessible and delivered closer to home
... There are several initiatives in the Action Plan component but little information on timeframes or how successes will be assessed.''
