19 OCTOBER 2005
FEW POSITIVES IN AUDITOR GENERAL’S SECOND PUBLIC
SECTOR PERFORMANCE REPORT
Few positives have emerged from the
latest report from the WA Auditor General, with Des Pearson expressing
his concerns on a number diverse issues – from vulnerability
of the Water Corporation’s sewer network to the illegal dumping
of hazardous controlled waste and the time taken to investigate complaints
about child care services, to the financial management of the Education
Department’s $1.4 billion payroll and the limited progress
made in addressing the recommendations contained in a previous report
on the management of deliberate self-harm in young people.
Mr Pearson’s misgivings are outlined
in his second Public Sector Performance Report, tabled in State Parliament
today, which details the results of audits examining the production,
transport and disposal of controlled waste, the regulation of child
care services in WA by the Department for Community Development (DCD),
and the personnel and payroll processing function at the Department
of Education and Training.
Also included in the report are the
findings of a follow-up examination of his 2001 report “Life Matters: Management of Deliberate Self-Harm
in Young People”.
In regard hazardous controlled waste,
Mr Pearson found that the system used in WA to monitor and track
its collection and disposal was unreliable and currently cannot effectively
prevent or detect possible illegal dumping.
Inadequacies in the system meant he
was unable to gain a clear picture of the amount of controlled waste
generated, transported and treated in Western
Australia.
Among the key findings were:
- The Water Corporation’s
sewer network is vulnerable to illegal dumping of controlled waste
and both the Water Corporation and the Department of Environment
(DoE) rely heavily on the public to notify them of illegal dumping.
- The DoE’s
controlled waste tracking system does not provide reliable data about
quantities and movement of controlled waste – in particular,
it does not reconcile the amount of controlled waste generated
with the amount disposed of.
- Sewer blockages
caused by the build up of fat and greasy waste have increased from
85 to 221 in the last four years, with nearly 50% of these blockages
leading to sewage overflows.
- DoE has a well-documented,
thorough and consistent approach to incident investigation and enforcement.
The examination
into the regulation of child care services by DCD found the need
for improvement in several key areas, including assessment of the
number and qualification of staff at child care centres, investigation
of complaints and allegations, and the monitoring of compliance with
regulations.
Findings in the
report included:
- 31% of centres
were not checked by DCD within six months of commencement in regard
the number and qualification of staff.
- Non-compliance
by child care services with regulatory requirements that constitute ‘no
immediate risk’ to the child is common, with DCD not classifying
the significance of each type of breach in order to determine what
levels of non-compliance constitutes grounds for prosecution, suspension
or revocation of a licence.
- DCD’s investigation
of complaints and allegations into child maltreatment can be complex
and take considerable time – complaints relating to matters
of health and safety, child care activities and administration took
on average 15 weeks to resolve, whilst 43% of investigations into
child maltreatment allegations took between 13 weeks and 8 months
to resolve.
Mr Pearson’s follow-up examination
of his 2001 report “Life Matters:
Management of Deliberate Self-Harm in Young People” finds that overall the Department of Health (DoH)
has made limited progress in addressing the recommendations made
in that report.
The examination found that:
- Not all patients
presenting with deliberate self-harm in hospital emergency departments
receive psychiatric attention in accordance with applicable guidelines,
primarily due to a lack of appropriately trained staff.
- The DoH does not
actively monitor compliance with the National Mental Health Standards,
and is unable to demonstrate that it has introduced minimum service
specifications.
- Different referral
and collaborative care protocols have been implemented across individual
the State’s health services, with these differences affecting
the efficiency and effectiveness of coordination between hospitals
and community based mental health services.
- An on-line clinical
information system has not been implemented to the extent that it
can be used by community mental health services to plan service delivery
and monitor performance.
The audit of the
adequacy of the personnel and payroll processing function at the
Department of Education and Training (DET) shows that the department
is WA’s largest State Government
employer with an annual payroll that exceeds $1.4 billion and a diverse
workforce which in 2004 involved the cumulative employment of approximately
50,000 full time, part time and casual staff under 14 different awards,
across 990 sites and requiring the processing of an average of 36,000
pays per fortnight.
Key findings from the audit indicate
that:
- DET undertakes
little monitoring and measurement of its personnel and payroll function – Internal
Audit involvement has been low, management reports concerning the
operation of the function are few and no measures have been established
to assess efficiency or effectiveness.
- The turnover rates
of employees within DET’s personnel and payroll branch is very
high at over 60%in 2004, with such a rate seriously affecting the
corporate knowledge of the branch and, potentially, the reliability
of the payroll.
- 89% of sampled
employees who commenced with DET were put onto the payroll and paid
promptly; the remainder waited longer than a benchmark maximum of
23 days to be paid.
Ends/.
Media Contact: Peter Villiers,
Manager Reporting and Communications
Tel: (08) 9222 7558. Mobile:
0417 936 171 Fax: (08) 9322 5664
4th Floor Dumas House 2 Havelock
Street West Perth
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