Delivering effective services to, and for, government | Annual Report 2017-18

Achieved

The Service Delivery Office (SDO) delivered on its agreed service levels for clients, and worked with existing and new clients to support them to fully transition to a cost-effective, quality shared service offering.

Operating the SDO is a key activity that Finance undertakes to achieve the ‘delivering effective services to, and for, government’ element of Finance’s purpose.

The SDO, one of six shared services hubs, is rapidly modernising its service offering to deliver faster and better outcomes for the government agencies it services. The SDO has realised a 10 per cent reduction in operating costs in one year, with savings handed back to client agencies, so that they can focus on delivering better frontline services to citizens and businesses.

This success has been delivered through a combination of initiatives, including a client-centric approach focused on stronger engagement and transparency; the introduction of enhanced management practices; the use of innovative technologies; and a commitment to service quality through improved governance arrangements.

nvestment in digital technologies has been fundamental to the SDO’s achievements throughout 2017–18. Transitioning to a private cloud hosting service has delivered highly accessible services, including the introduction of apps that are mobile-enabled for use by clients. The SDO has also introduced five automations that are eliminating errors and reducing costs in high-volume and repetitive processes.

Investments based on robust evidence have improved quality and efficiency. The SDO’s client agencies now have access to dynamic reporting that provides real-time access to strategic and performance data. Client agencies have also been able to reduce effort in their organisations through the SDO’s introduction of technologies like digital invoice management.

Achieved

Comcover is self-funded and continues to deliver cost-effective services that encourage agencies to effectively manage risk. It is sustained through the collection of annual fund member contributions.

Comcover was established as a self-managed fund in July 1998 to implement the government’s self-insurance policy. The operations of Comcover are funded from the Comcover Special Account, which collects premiums from members and uses this revenue to fund all claims that fall under the statement of cover.

It is mandatory for all Commonwealth entities that are subject to the PGPA Act and classified in the general government sector to be Comcover members. Outstanding claims are actuarially assessed each quarter and annual riskbased premiums are set based on actuarial advice regarding the expected cost of claims to be incurred in the policy year plus administration expenses. By providing a clear price signal, these risk-based premiums encourage agencies to effectively manage risk.

As at 30 June 2018, Comcover had an outstanding claims liability of $381.9 million, which was more than covered by the $480.5 million balance in the Comcover Special Account. It is anticipated that Comcover will be able to meet its liabilities as and when they fall due, with the cash balance adequate to cover at least three to four years of normal claims experience.

Information on the financial performance and position of the scheme can be found in the department’s financial statements under Note C1: General insurance activities and Note F3: Special accounts (see Part 5 of this report).

Achieved

The risk management benchmarking program results showed that the overall risk maturity of Comcover fund members increased by 3.6 per cent in 2017–18 across each of the nine elements of the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy.

The greatest increase, of 4.2 per cent, was observed for element one— ‘Establishing a risk management policy’, with the lowest increase (2.8 per cent) observed for element eight—‘Maintaining risk management capability’.

Comcover supports entities to obtain the knowledge, skills and expertise they need to successfully implement and integrate risk management within their organisations.

Throughout 2017–18, Comcover provided a range of services to entities including:

• a comprehensive training program in risk management, featuring workshops, e-Learning, and workplace support across four capability pathways. Comcover delivered training to 2,705 officials from entities:
  • Foundation Pathway: 2,457 participants
  • Generalist Pathway: 147 participants
  • Specialist Pathway: 30 participants
  • Executive Pathway: 71 participants
• better practice guidance, case studies and access to risk management tools and consultancy services, which assist entities to manage risk effectively
• advice and support to entities on risk management issues, including tailored advice and the development of specific risk management tools
• the Comcover Seminar Series, featuring guest speakers from the Comcover Legal Services Parcelling Arrangement, discussing current and emerging risks to entities
• the annual risk management benchmarking program, which enables fund members to self-assess their risk management capability against the nine elements of the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy using a risk maturity model.
  These services contribute directly to improving the risk maturity of entities.

Achieved

Service standards that were met, or exceeded, for the period ending 30 June 2018 include:

• 95.84 per cent of client contacts acknowledged within 24 hours and responded to within agreed timeframes
• 99.05 per cent of payments (including payroll) were made within agreed timeframes
• 100 per cent of office establishments and relocation projects delivered within their approved budget
• 99.66 per cent of COMCAR reservations were completed without service failure.

Another measure of Finance’s performance against the ‘delivering effective services to, and for, government’ element of its purpose is measuring whether the services delivered by Finance under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984 meet the needs of parliamentarians, their employees and others as required by the Australian Government.

Finance regards the delivery of timely and efficient business support to current and former parliamentarians and their employees as essential to their work in the public interest, which subsequently benefits the broader Australian community.

Parliamentarians are eligible to claim public resources under the Parliamentary Business Resources framework. Through this framework, Finance oversees the provision of non-travel-related expenses and services to parliamentarians and their respective employees under the Members of Parliament (Staff) Act 1984.

COMCAR provides high-quality, secure and confidential car-with-driver services to a range of clients, including the Governor-General, the Prime Minister, members of parliament, the federal judiciary and heads of Commonwealth agencies. COMCAR also provides ground transportation services for official guest of government visits and at major events.

In order to determine its performance in delivering these services, Finance has identified four high-level service standards related to essential services delivered by Finance, as shown under the result for this performance criterion.

Achieved

The Parliamentary Expenses Management System (PEMS) project has commenced and is on track to deliver milestones in accordance with the PEMS second-pass business case for an integrated ICT solution to manage and report parliamentarians’ work expenses. Expenditure of $38.1 million was approved for PEMS through the 2017–18 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook process.

In addition to delivering services to parliamentarians and their employees, Finance contributes to the ‘delivering effective services to, and for government’ element of its purpose through improving the timeliness, efficiency, clarity and transparency of administration of parliamentary work expenses.

Finance, in collaboration with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Remuneration Tribunal and the Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority, is implementing the recommendations of the review into an independent parliamentary entitlements system.

A major reform from the review is the implementation of a new parliamentary work expenses framework, which commenced on 1 January 2018, and a supporting Parliamentary Expenses Management System (PEMS).

PEMS is a secure, simple digital portal that, once fully implemented, will enable parliamentarians and their staff to manage their work expenses and lodge and track claims using a computer or mobile device with an internet connection.

The PEMS solution will address duplication and inefficiencies in existing legacy systems and transform administrative processes and practices through a complete digital technology refresh.

The PEMS project, including full reporting functionality, is due for completion in June 2020.

The staged and supported transition away from the current paper-based system is in line with the government’s broader digital transformation agenda.