Managing the Department's business

When the Department was created in July 2001 its corporate governance was in need of urgent attention. The Auditor General qualified the Department's 2001-02 financial statements because of a failure to account properly for significant bank reconciliation matters during that year and in preceding years.

Over the past year we have overhauled corporate governance and developed a new Corporate Governance Framework and Manual that provides clear planning, strong direction, sound resource management and stringent controls. These efforts sit within the leadership category of the Business Excellence Framework. During the year we:

• Overhauled the financial management system to ensure that the six million transactions acquitted by the Department each year are thoroughly accounted for;
• Introduced a new chart of accounts to facilitate greater accountability;
• Developed a corporate planning framework;
• Developed portfolio planning and investment prioritising processes;
• Participated in control and compliance audits initiated by the Office of the Auditor General including information technology, general controls and Internet security audit follow up;
• Developed divisional and branch business plans using the Business Excellence Framework;
• Commenced a comprehensive delegations register to identify all delegations under which the Department works, the statutes to which the delegations relate and the person/branch responsible for each function.

Roles and responsibilities
The framework of accountability in government requires that the Director General is primarily accountable to the Minister for the Department's activities and, through the Minister, to the Parliament.

The Director General:

• Advises the Minister on portfolio issues, operating and financial performance, and any development which is likely to seriously affect the Department's operations;
• Sets, monitors and reviews the directions of the Department;
• Ensures that the Department's objectives and goals are achieved;
• Works collaboratively with other portfolio agencies and the private sector;
• Monitors the performance of the organisation; and
• Adopts sound management practice and consistency with Public Sector requirements.

The Director General is responsible for the governance of the Department under a number of Acts. The most significant of these are:

• Financial Administration and Audit Act
• Public Sector Management Act
• Equal Opportunity Act
• Freedom of Information Act
• Library Board of WA Act
• State Trading Concerns Act
• State Records Act

The Corporate Executive team consists of all heads of Divisions. The Corporate Executive:

• Sets, monitors and reviews the direction of the Department;
• Works collaboratively with portfolio agencies;
• Determines priorities for funding;
• Establishes and implements corporate policies;
• Monitors performance;
• Models desired values and behaviours; and
• Complies with relevant government directives, guidelines and legislation.

Deliberations of meetings are recorded permanently and the content of meeting proceedings is communicated effectively to all staff on a regular basis via the Intranet.

Corporate Executive sub-committees
Six sub-committees play a key role in assisting the Department to fulfil its responsibilities in delivering effective business management. These committees were established to lead the Department and to ensure its business objectives are met.

• The Audit Committee ensures issues relating to the Department's reporting, internal control structure and risk management systems are addressed.
• The Tenders Committee ensures that high standards of probity, ethics and professional conduct, within an accountable and transparent process are maintained.
• The Information Management Committee is responsible for the oversight of information management.
• The Human Resources Committee is responsible for human resource management and development initiatives.
• The Communications and Community Relations Committee is responsible for the oversight and improvement of all communications and community relations.
• The Business Services Committee is responsible for business management including business support policy, processes and procedures.

For details of membership, terms of appointments and number of meetings attended refer to Appendix 2.

Improved systems and processes
During the year we improved our information systems processes and systems including:

• Introducing enterprise architecture and a centralised acquisition process to standardise our information and communications technology - this has led to a reduction in support and procurement costs;
• Creating a 'warm' back-up site to improve the business continuity of our core business systems at a competitive price - the site includes a fully mirrored production environment for the agency's licensing database system, TRELIS, so we have the ability to quickly move the operation of TRELIS from its production site to its back-up site with a minimum of disruption to the users of the system;
• Establishing a Storage Area Network to address our record keeping requirements regarding electronic documents (principally email);
• Implementing a Content Management System to standardise Intranet and Internet formats and to ensure the currency of web pages;
• Initiating a detailed analysis of system and data risk to allow compilation and testing of an agency Disaster Recovery Plan;
• Implementing a range of policies to improve information security, such as privacy policies and passwords; and
• Aligning information and communications technology expenditure with business outputs, so expenditure is always visible to the business unit.

We also implemented a new Human Resource Management Information System and introduced an online 'web kiosk' to improve staff access to payroll details. This self-managed system also reduces the amount of time required to answer basic enquiries and to make minor changes to a staff member's details.

Read More...
Read more about Corporate Governance under Governance