28 March 2007
IMPROVED PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT ARRANGEMENTS NEEDED FOR WA’S PUBLIC SECTOR
CEOs
Acting WA Auditor General Colin Murphy has called for a strengthening of the
arrangements used in managing the performance of Chief Executive Officers in
the West Australian public sector.
An audit by Mr Murphy has found that although the current CEO performance
management arrangements incorporated many good practice elements, some parts
are poor and compromise the overall effectiveness of the process.
The results of that audit are reported in Mr Murphy’s first Public Sector
Performance Report, tabled in Parliament today, which also contains the results
of two other audits – how promptly government agencies pay their bills
and the management of consumer protection investigations by the Department
of Consumer and Employment Protection (DOCEP).
In relation to the performance management arrangements for CEOs subject to
the Public Sector Management Act, Mr Murphy found:
- Except in a few cases,
the template performance agreements issued by the Department of Premier and
Cabinet (DPC) for use by Ministers and their CEOs do not require measurable
performance criteria – noting that measures,
such as targets, would enable all parties to know what level of performance
is required to satisfy the criteria.
- For the past three years CEOs
and Ministers have not received the template performance agreements until
four to five months after the commencement of the year, this significantly
reducing their usefulness for managing performance.
- Performance management
arrangements are not applied to acting CEOs – in
2006, 16 agencies had acting CEOs, seven of which had been acting for more
than 12 months.
- DPC’s oversight of the arrangements is limited
and will not identify inappropriate practices such as a lack of targets or
quantitative data to support assessments.
In agencies not subject to the Public Sector Management Act it was found that:
- In
50% of the sampled agencies assessments were not in writing – noting
that undocumented assessments limit independent review and reduce the transparency
of the process.
- Five arrangements in the sampled agencies included
performance bonuses, the average payment in 2005-06 being about $34,000.
In examining DOCEP’s arrangements for managing its consumer protection
investigations, Mr Murphy notes that in 2005-06 DOCEP completed over 3000 investigations
into possible breaches of the 60 pieces of consumer protection legislation
that it administers – most of these arising from public complaints or
from DOCEP’s own monitoring and commonly involving allegations against
real estate agents, retailers, landlords, service providers, service stations,
motor vehicle dealers, finance brokers and plumbers.
Key findings were that
- DOCEP has a comprehensive system for conducting consumer protection
investigations with the system meeting the WA Ombudsman’s requirements
for fair and proper administrative investigations.
- Some opportunities
for improvement (such as keeping complainants better informed about investigations
and periodically conducting independent reviews of consumer protection investigations
to assure their quality) were identified but these did not amount to fundamental
system flaws.
In ascertaining how promptly government agencies paid their bills, Mr Murphy
sampled payments at 21 agencies representing a range of government activity
and type to see if they complied with a Treasurer’s Instruction that
all commercial payments be paid within 30 days of the receipt of the creditor’s
claim, or within 30 days of provision of the goods or services.
Key findings included:
- Fourteen per cent of invoices sampled failed
to meet the Treasurer’s
Instruction by taking more than 30 days to pay – the lateness of these
payments ranged from 1 to 90 days over the 30-day limit and the value of
delayed invoices ranged from $10 to $406,000.
- Seventy six per cent
of late payments were caused by delays before invoices reached the financial
sections of agencies.
- Only three of the 21 agencies were consistently
recording the date invoices were received and so were able to monitor accurately
the timeliness of their payments to creditors and their compliance with Treasurer’s
Instruction – four agencies recorded this date less than 50 per cent
of the time.
- Five agencies could not provide requested data from their
financial systems – this was caused by combinations of outsourced service
provision, technical limitations of the data kept, and costs.
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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