Chapter 4

Management and accountability

1. Corporate governance
2. External scrutiny
3. People management
4. Financial management

Corporate governance

Senior executive and responsibilities

Mr Ron Brent acted as Commonwealth Ombudsman from 8 March to 29 August 2010 after taking over from the departing Professor John McMillan AO, who was Ombudsman from March 2003.

Mr Allan Asher took up the role of Ombudsman from 30 August 2010.

Ron Brent was Deputy Ombudsman from 1 October 2009 to 31 July 2010. Until Ms Alison Larkins filled the position from 17 March 2011 the following Senior Assistant Ombudsmen acted in the role:

• Mr George Masri – 1 August to 15 August 2010
• Ms Diane Merryfull – 16 August to 16 October 2010
• Mr Adam Stankevicius – 17 October to 17 December 2010 (and from 31 May to 24 June 2011)
• Mr George Masri – 20 December 2010 to 23 March 2011.

The remuneration for the Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman is set by a Determination made by the Remuneration Tribunal. See Note 11 in the Financial Statements for further details on executive remuneration.

The Ombudsman and the Deputy Ombudsman make up the Executive, and together with five Senior Assistant Ombudsmen comprise the senior management team.

At 30 June 2011, the office’s senior management team and their areas of responsibility were:

• Tracey Frey – Senior Assistant Ombudsman; Chief Financial Officer

  Organisational Support Services: Finance, Information Services, Public Contact, Public Affairs, Human Resources and Records Sentencing

• office support and corporate services comprising security, property, human resources, records management and governance
• financial operations, risk management and business planning
• work practices and procedures
• Public Contact Team, which provides a national point of contact for all approaches to the office made by telephone, email or online
• information technology and communications infrastructure
• public affairs and outreach, including management of the office’s intranet and internet sites

• Peter Edwards – Acting Senior Assistant Ombudsman

  Postal Industry and State Offices

• specialised advice and complaint handling relating to Australia Post and registered postal operators of the Postal Industry Ombudsman scheme
• specialised advice and complaint handling relating to more than 40 Australian Government agencies with low complaint numbers
• management and oversight of our State offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney – all of which handle complaints and undertake specialist work.

• George Masri – Senior Assistant Ombudsman

  Social Support, Child Support Agency, Indigenous and Overseas Students

• specialised advice and complaint handling relating to the Department of Human Services and relevant policy departments (which includes Centrelink, Child Support Agency and Medicare)
• the office’s Indigenous Unit, with staff located in Canberra and Darwin, specialising in issues involving Indigenous people
• development of a new Ombudsman function to provide a complaints avenue for overseas students of private education and training providers.

• Helen Fleming – Senior Assistant Ombudsman

  ACT, Immigration, Detention Review and Legal

• complaint handling relating to the ACT Ombudsman function
• specialised advice and complaint handling relating to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship
• review cases of detainees who have been held in immigration detention for six months or more
• in-house legal advice and policy service to support staff in performing their functions.

• Adam Stankevicius – Senior Assistant Ombudsman

  Defence, Inspections, Law Enforcement, Taxation, Public Interest Disclosure and International

• specialised advice and complaint handling relating to the Australian Defence Force, the Department of Defence, Defence Housing Australia and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs
• complaint handling and investigating law enforcement activities relating to Australian Government law enforcement agencies
• inspections of the records of enforcement agencies for statutory compliance, adequacy and comprehensiveness
• specialised advice and complaint handling relating to the Australian Taxation Office.
• management of the office’s International Program and related AusAID projects.

(From left) George Masri, Ombudsman Allan Asher, Tracey Frey, Adam Stankevicius, Deputy Ombudsman Alison Larkins, Helen Fleming, Peter Edwards (inset)

Corporate planning and review

In 2011–12 the office will continue to:

• work with key stakeholders to address issues and trends identified through our complaint investigations
• provide and promote accessible ways for people to complain or seek redress;
• investigate complaints impartially and effectively
• carry out statutory oversight and conduct compliance activities
• partner for and promote good administration.

The office’s strategic plan informs its internal business plans, which are prepared on an annual basis. There are clear links between the objectives and the key measures of success of the strategic plan and the key result areas in the business plans for all teams, and in individual performance agreements for all staff members.

The senior management team considers reports on finance, human resources, operations and information technology on a monthly basis. Business plan reporting and ongoing risk assessment was conducted on a quarterly basis throughout the year.

Management committees

Management committees are set up to assist the Executive and Senior Management team with decision making in key areas. The committees make recommendations to the Senior Management Board, which meet fortnightly.

Senior Management Board

The Senior Management Board which comprises the Ombudsman, Deputy Ombudsman, Senior Assistant Ombudsman, Executive Officer to the Ombudsman and Director of Public Affairs, or their representatives, meet fortnightly to discuss a broad range of issues relating to the work of the office.

Information Management Committee

The Information Management Committee ensures that the development of the information communication technology, work practices and governance align with a whole-of-office approach to information management. The committee also provides strategic guidance to information management and technology investment decisions. It meets every two months and is chaired by the Senior Assistant Ombudsman (Organisational Support Services) and has representatives from relevant areas in the office, including the State offices and specialist investigation areas. It met three times in 2010–11.

Internal Audit Committee

As required by the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 , the office has an Internal Audit Committee. The committee’s role is to review, monitor and where necessary recommend improvements to internal control, financial reporting, internal audit functions, external audit processes, and to office processes for monitoring compliance with legislation and government policy directives.

At 30 June 2011 the Audit Committee is chaired by the Deputy Ombudsman. In addition to the chair, membership comprises three Senior Executive Service officers and two external independent members. Observers include representatives from the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), PricewaterhouseCoopers (the office’s internal auditors) and the Chief Financial Officer.

During 2010–11 PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted three internal audits. The office is implementing the recommendations from the audits and the Audit Committee monitors progress against each action item at its meetings.

Occupational Health and Safety Committee

The office’s Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) Committee is made up of elected representatives from each state office and is chaired by the Manager, Human Resources who represents management.

Workplace Relations Committee

A Deputy Ombudsman chairs the Workplace Relations Committee. It comprises employee, management and union representatives, and is the main consultative body on workplace conditions within the office. The committee met five times during the year and considered matters such as staff survey action items, recruitment and selection guidelines, learning and development, accommodation and environmental management.

A separate negotiation committee was established comprising union, staff and management representatives, for the purposes of negotiating the new Enterprise Agreement.

Corporate governance practices

The office’s risk management activities are overseen by the Internal Audit Committee. The office’s risk management framework comprises an overarching risk management policy and a strategic risk management plan. The Senior Management review the strategic risks quarterly as part of the business planning process.

During 2010–11, the office conducted risk management information sessions for staff in our Brisbane and Adelaide offices.

The office continues to participate in the annual Comcover Risk Management Benchmarking Survey, which independently assesses our risk management arrangements.

Business continuity planning

The purpose of our Business Continuity Plan is to ensure that the most critical work of the office can continue with minimal disruption, or be quickly resumed, in the event of a disaster. The plan utilises the strengths of a national office structure to respond to a potential problem with one or more of the office’s seven sites. We successfully activated the plan during the Brisbane floods and have reviewed lessons learned from this experience.

Fraud prevention and control

The office regularly reports against its fraud control plan and fraud risk assessment. The risk of fraud remains low for the office. The Internal Audit Committee oversees the implementation of the fraud control plan.

I certify that the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s office has prepared fraud risk assessments and fraud control plans and has in place appropriate fraud prevention, detection, investigation, reporting and data collection procedures and processes that meet the specific needs of the office and comply with the Commonwealth Fraud Control Guidelines.

Allan Asher

Commonwealth Ombudsman

Ethical standards

The importance of the APS values is outlined in induction documentation and training for staff, and in internal documents such as the Harassment Prevention Policy and the Work Practice Manual. It is reinforced on a regular basis through mechanisms such as our internal quality assurance processes, staff training and dealing with complaints about service delivery. We also engage with the Australian Public Service Ethics Contact Officer Network, which began in May 2009.

Complaint management

As reported in the previous annual report, the office established an internal complaint and review process, which allows complaints about the office’s decisions and service quality to be resolved quickly, fairly and informally. During this reporting period, we commenced a process to again evaluate our practices against our Better Practice Guide to Complaint Handling and national standards on complaint-handling, with a view to identifying further improvements in the way we accept and monitor complaints. This work was ongoing at the time of reporting. The office’s complaints and grievances mechanism is set out in our service charter and detailed reporting is provided in Chapter 3— Performance report.

Service provider

In developing and maintaining our web presence, we endeavour to adhere to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, to Level AA. Relevant activities have included testing colour contrast for the vision impaired, simplifying navigation, separating document formatting from content with style sheets, providing text equivalents for non-text elements, and improving metadata.

Improving accessibility of web content is a journey not a destination. As we continue to develop our website and use hosted platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, we remain committed to improving web content accessibility.

Environmental matters

The Ombudsman is required to report on certain environmental matters under s 516A(5)(a) of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act), detailing the office’s environmental performance and its contribution to ecologically sustainable development.

The Ombudsman continued to encourage staff to manage all resources, including energy, prudently and in an ecologically responsible manner. The office’s Environmental Management Policy focuses on the conservation of energy within the workplace, including the use of light, computer equipment, water management, transport management and organic recycling. The office recycles toner/printer cartridges, paper and cardboard products, classified waste and cans, bottles and plastic. These strategies are communicated to staff through the Workplace Relations Committee, the office intranet, and induction program. We are also introducing an electronic records management system, which will help to reduce paper usage.

The Ombudsmen office’s estimated energy consumption per person per year increased by 6.3% from 2008–09 to 2009–10. Data for 2010–11 was not available at the time of preparation of this report.

All our offices are shared with other tenants. When an office needs to move location, one factor we consider in selecting a new location is the environmental credentials of alternative locations.

External scrutiny

Privacy

The Ombudsman’s office is subject to the Privacy Act 1988 . It provides information required for the Personal Information Digest. The Privacy Commissioner did not issue any report or make any adverse comment about the office during the year.

Tribunal litigation

The office was the Respondent in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in one matter. The Tribunal dismissed the application at hearing after deciding that it had no jurisdiction to hear the application.

Reports to the Auditor-General and Parliamentary committee enquiries

There were no reports specific to the operation of the Ombudsman’s office by the Auditor-General or Parliamentary committees. Our Internal Audit Committee examines all reports issued by the Auditor-General that be relevant to the office, to identify any requirements for improvements in office procedures.

People management

Workplace relations

The Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman Enterprise Agreement reached its nominal expiry on 30 June 2011.

The Enterprise Agreement focused on people, remuneration and employment arrangements, working environment and lifestyle, learning and development and performance management and improvement.

A total of 175 employees were covered under the Enterprise Agreement. Conditions are provided for the office’s five Senior Executive Service (SES) staff under s.24(1) of the Public Service Act 1999 . No staff were employed under Australian workplace agreements or common law contracts.

The Enterprise Agreement did not make provision for performance pay. Salary advancement within each of the non-SES classification was linked to performance. Determinations under s.24(1) provide for SES annual salary advancement also based on performance and do not make provision for performance pay. Non-salary benefits are not usually offered to employees with the exception of car parking as salary packaging for SES officers.

(A new Enterprise Agreement became effective as of 27 July 2011. It will reach its nominal expiry date on 30 June 2014.)

Staffing profile

At 30 June 2011 the actual number of employees was 182, including the Ombudsman and a Deputy Ombudsman. Full-time employees numbered 155 with 27 employees (17.4% of employees) part-time. Of these, 24 were ongoing. The full-time equivalent number of employees for the year was 173.63.

Table 4.1 shows the numbers of employees by gender and Australian Public Service (APS) classification and salary range. Table 4.2 shows the office’s staffing profile by location. Tables 4.3 and 4.4 show the office’s part-time employee profile by location and classification.

During the year, 54 employees were engaged on an ongoing basis and 38 ongoing employees left the office, equating to a turnover rate of 21% (compared to 20.5% in the previous year). There were 48 separations including ongoing and non-ongoing employees.

TABLE 4.1: Staffing profile by level, gender and salary range at 30 June 2011

APS classification and salary range	Men (as at 30 June 2011)		Women (as at 30 June 2011)		Total
	Ongoing	Non-ongoing	Ongoing	Non-ongoing	Ongoing		Non-ongoing
					As at 30 June 2010	As at 30 June 2011	As at 30 June 2010	As at 30 June 2011
APS1 $39,621 - $43,794	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
APS2 $44,841 - $49,725	-	-	2	1	-	2	-	1
APS3 $51,076 - $55,127	-	-	2	1	2	2	-	1
APS4 $56,925 - $61,806	12	1	22	-	25	34	2	1
APS5 $63,491 - $67,325	7	2	17	1	24	24	1	3
APS6 $68,576 - $79,136	15	2	25	-	35	40	1	2
EL1 $87,910 - $109,723	16	-	30	-	40	46	1	-
EL2 $101,394 - $118,529	6	-	13	-	19	19	-	-
SES $164,622 - $168,987	2	-	3	-	5	5	-	-
Statutory officers	1	-	1	-	4	2	-	-
TOTAL	59	5	115	3	154	174	5	8

TABLE 4.2: Staffing profile by location at 30 June 2011

Location	Men	Women	Total
ACT	49	86	135
NSW	2	10	12
NT	-	-	-
QLD	3	9	12
SA	3	4	7
TAS	-	-	-
VIC	5	8	13
WA	2	1	3
TOTAL	64	118	182

TABLE 4.3: Staffing profile showing part-time employees by location at 30 June 2011

Location	Men	Women	Total
ACT	3	18	21
NSW	-	2	2
NT	-	-	-
QLD	-	2	2
SA	-	1	1
TAS	-	-	-
VIC	-	1	1
WA	-	-	-
TOTAL	3	24	27

TABLE 4.4: Staffing profile showing part-time employees by classification at 30 June 2011

Classification	Men	Women	Total
APS1	-	-	-
APS2	-	-	-
APS3	-	2	2
APS4	-	3	3
APS5	-	6	6
APS6	1	4	5
EL1	2	5	7
EL2	-	4	4
SES	-	-	-
TOTAL	3	24	27

TABLE 4.5: Staffing profile showing staff separations by classification at 30 June 2011

Classification	Ongoing	Non-ongoing	Total
APS1	-	-	-
APS2	-	1	1
APS3	-	-	-
APS4	5	3	8
APS5	5	2	7
APS6	11	-	11
EL1	10	3	13
EL2	4	1	5
SES	1	-	1
Statutory Office Holders	2	-	2
TOTAL	38	10	48

Career development and training

The office continues to focus on learning and development opportunities for staff. Our learning and development framework is based on three elements—leadership, corporate and core business programs.

There are currently a suite of 11 core training modules designed specifically to develop core competency and skills in investigations, inspections, writing, administrative law, office practices and record keeping. These modules are conducted regularly and all staff are required to attend the sessions.

Each staff member is encouraged to undertake learning and development programs that are designed to promote their capability in relation to their corporate and core business training and development.

An electronic scheduling system identifies learning and development opportunities, provides online booking facilities and records the training history for each employee.

Staff representatives delivered a variety of in-house training on information technology, financial, risk and fraud management and investigation workshops across all offices. This proved to be of great value with an increase in consistency in the use of the office’s complaint management system, financial framework and record keeping.

The office supports staff attendance at courses, seminars and conferences identified in their personal development plans. We recognised and implemented development opportunities through job rotation, special project work, higher duties, placements with other agencies and representation on work committees. These programs have been well received with many staff taking up the opportunities to further develop their skills.

The office also supports staff who undertake relevant study at tertiary institutions. We offer staff assistance through study leave and/or financial assistance.

In line with the new enterprise agreement, the next financial year will see a focus on learning and development strategies. A new learning and development framework will be developed to enhance employees’ performance and skill levels.

Occupational health and safety

During the year there were no accidents or injuries reportable under s.68 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 1991 (OH&S Act) and there were no investigations conducted within the office under sections 29, 46 or 47 of the OH&S Act.

All new employees are advised of the importance and responsibilities of both staff and management for health and safety in the workplace during their induction. New employees are provided with a workplace assessment in the first week of commencement and familiarisation with their physical work environment. Staff who work from home are also given workplace assessments.

Occupational health and safety committee and representatives

A health and safety representative is located at each office site. The representatives manage OH&S matters either through the OH&S Committee, regular staff meetings or by seeking assistance from the OH&S officer.

Health and safety initiatives

During 2010–11 the office:

• arranged health assessments, where necessary
• conducted individual workplace assessments
• facilitated eye examinations, where necessary
• made first aid facilities and supplies available, and provided first aid training to First Aid Officers (refresher and senior first aid for new officers)
• provided OH&S training to representatives
• conducted regular simulated fire evacuations
• targeted individual health awareness through health management initiatives such as providing flu vaccinations to employees free-of-charge and holding trauma workshops.

The current enterprise agreement includes a ‘lifestyle contribution’ allowance. This is available to all staff as a reimbursement for health-related lifestyle expenses. Flu vaccinations are also provided under the current enterprise agreement.

Harassment and bullying awareness workshops are being provided in the future for all staff.

To promote a supportive working environment, the office provides staff with access to an employee assistance program that provides a confidential counselling service, facilitation of teamwork issues, career advice and the management of any work-related or personal issues.

These measures contribute to the maintenance of the low rate of accidents and compensable injuries in the workplace.

Disability strategy

The Commonwealth Ombudsman has responsibilities related to our employer role under the Commonwealth Disability Strategy framework. We are required to report on our employer role activities through the Australian Public Service Commission’s annual State of the Service report, and agency-level material is available in that publication at www.apsc.gov.au/stateoftheservice/index.html.

Financial management

The Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman is largely funded through parliamentary appropriations. Revenue is also received from the ACT Government for the provision of Ombudsman services in relation to ACT Government agencies and the Australian Federal Police when providing police services to the ACT.

Revenue is received from AusAID to support the work of ombudsmen and similar entities in Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Pacific Island nations. Details of the office’s resources are included in Appendix 6.

The most significant items that had an impact on the office’s financial results this year were the change in appropriation funding for depreciation expense, the revaluation of the property, plant and equipment assets and the recognition of the Department of Climate Change taking over the office’s old Canberra accommodation.

Financial performance

The surplus of $0.266 million for the year ending 30 June 2011 compared to the $1.120 million deficit in 2009–10 is due to a 7% increase in revenue.

Total expenses for the office of $21.400 million were comparable to the previous year. Reduced staff costs were offset by the write-down of the assets associated with the previous Canberra office space.

Appropriation revenue in 2010–11 was $19.516 million, $0.721 million greater than in 2009–10. Increased funding was provided in the Budget for the Overseas Students Ombudsman role, Christmas Island oversight and public interest disclosure oversight measures.

Financial position

The office’s total equity has increased by $1.559 million due mainly to the departmental capital budget injection ($0.797 million) and the revaluation of fixed assets ($0.491 million).

The Ombudsman’s office is a small office with a standard suite of assets, such as information technology items, which require no special management measures beyond those which are standard in an accrual-based budgeting framework.

The office’s total assets increased to $10.933 million in 2010–11 from $9.884 million in 2009–10. The office’s assets by category at 30 June 2011 were:

• receivables (amounts due to be paid to the office – 62% of total assets)
• property, plant and equipment (27%)
• other financial assets (relating to lease incentives – 4%)
• intangibles (non-physical assets such as software – 3%)
• cash (2%)
• other non-financial assets (relating to prepayments – 2%).

The balance sheet shows cash holdings of $0.213 million ($0.368 million in 2009–10). The office’s appropriation receivable increased by $2.262 million, from $4.535 million in 2009–10 to $6.797 million in 2010–11.

The office’s non-financial assets decreased by $0.134 million to $3.532 million in 2010–11 ($3.666 million in 2009–10), primarily due to the disposal of furniture and fit-out pertaining to the old Canberra accommodation.

Total liabilities decreased by $0.510 million to $7.111 million in 2010–11 ($7.621 million in 2009–10). The change in liabilities was primarily due to the removal of the restoration provision for the old Canberra accommodation and a decrease in unearned revenue.

Procurement and grants

The Ombudsman’s office is committed to achieving the best value for money in its procurement practices. Purchasing practices and procedures are consistent with the Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines and are set out in the Chief Executive’s Instructions.

The office published its Annual Procurement Plan on the AusTender website (as required under the Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines) to facilitate early procurement planning and to draw to the attention of businesses our planned procurement for the 2010–11 financial year.

The office engages consultants when the expertise required is not available within the organisation, or when the specialist skills required are not available without diverting resources from other higher priority tasks. In accordance with procurement guidelines, consultants are selected by open tender, panel arrangements, select tender or direct sourcing. The main categories of contracts relate to information technology, financial services, human resources services, governance and legal advice.

During 2010–11 the office entered into seven new consultancy contracts involving total actual expenditure of $185,691 (inclusive of GST). See Appendix 5— Consultancy services, advertising and market research for details of new consultancy contracts.

Annual reports contain information about actual expenditure on contracts for consultancies. Information on the value of contracts and consultancies is available on the AusTender website (www.tenders.gov.au).

Table 4.6 shows expenditure on consultancy contracts over the three most recent financial years.

TABLE 4.6: Expenditure on consultancy contracts, 2008–09 to 2010–11

Year	Number of consultancy contracts	Total actual expenditure
2008–09	6	$236,295
2009–10	4	$154,400
2010–11	7	$185,691

The office’s standard contract templates include an ANAO audit clause. The office did not sign any contracts in the reporting period of $100,000 or more (inclusive of GST).

The office did not exempt any contracts or standing offers that cost more than $10,000 (including GST) from publication in AusTender.

The office did not administer any grant programs during 2010–11.

Information Communication Technology (ICT)

In 2010–11 we continued to improve our use and management of ICT to support the performance of Commonwealth Ombudsman functions. We are mindful of the increasing reliance on information technology for both internal purposes and as a form of communication with the public.

The majority of ICT services including service desk are delivered in-house. Corporate application support is provided for Resolve (complaint handling) and Objective (document record management). External service providers are used to manage Wide Area Network and Secure Internet Gateway services. Inter-agency arrangements are in place for provision of HR systems.

ICT governance, work practices and system changes are continuously reviewed as part of our information management practices. The aim is to deliver improved timeliness, efficiency and effectiveness in systems and tools to support the agency in managing complaints, conducting inspections and generating reports.

Completed projects during 2010–11 include:

• Desktop and Laptop replacement, including implementation of Microsoft Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010
• Server environment improvements, including hardware upgrades, rollout of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, and virtualisation in the state offices
• Replacement of the office’s call management system with QMaster, and the replacement of the Canberra and Sydney PABX systems
• Improvements in the storage of sensitive information both physically and electronically
• Implementation of additional functionality to support the new Overseas Student Ombudsman role
• Recording and tracking of public events for comparison against the volume of related complaints.

ICT security is being improved to give better information protection, along with enhancing interoperability with other agencies. We are examining further improvements to work practices and IT systems that might assist in the reporting and monitoring of issues of interest and in automating the transfer of complaints to other agencies. We will also expand our project management capability to enhance project performance and benefits realisation.