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Contents > Overviews > Outcome 1: National Interests > Outcome 2: Consular & Passports > Outcome 3: Public Diplomacy > Management > Financial Statements > Appendixes > Glossaries
YOU ARE CURRENTLY AT: Outcome 1 > Output 1.4 > Services to attached agencies overseas
OUTCOME 1: Australia's national interests protected and advanced through contributions to international security, national economic and trade performance and global cooperation
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Output 1.4: |
Services to attached agencies overseas
The services the department provides to other agencies at our overseas posts help to avoid duplication of effort and expense in the provision of basic administrative functions. Twenty-nine Government agencies and departments are signatories to the current Common Administrative Services (CAS) agreement (see Appendix 15), through which we provide administrative support, on a user-pays basis, in six broad areas:
- personnel services—Australia-based staff
- personnel services—locally engaged staff
- office services
- property services
- financial services
- communications.
The CAS agreement covered over 2 500 Australia-based and locally engaged staff employed at posts by other agencies during 1999–2000. Information on the feedback the department has received from our CAS clients is on page 128.
The department continued to provide high-quality communications services to clients, including the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, the Department of Defence and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. These services included the cable and electronic mail systems within the secure and in confidence communications systems, the private voice services between Canberra and posts, and the emergency radio and satellite communications systems.
We worked with industry to ensure that we and other government agencies received value for money. We have changed the architecture of our global telecommunications network to take advantage of new technology to improve efficiency and functionality.
The continued expansion of the communications network, both overseas and domestically, now provides for better and faster communication and met clients’ requirements. We provided six new sites with communications, including the office on Thursday Island, and posts in Dili, Zagreb, Abu Dhabi, Guangzhou and Bridgetown. This represented a net increase of four sites with communications following the closure of two other overseas posts.
All communications and office systems at posts, and utilities such as power and water, were Y2K compliant. Contingency plans were in place in time for the critical time change. Project Merlin, the department’s satellite communications project, overcame a number of communications difficulties, provided enhanced capacity to a number of our more remote posts, and played a key role in maintaining secure communications with some posts during crisis periods.
YOU ARE CURRENTLY AT: Outcome 1 > Output 1.4 > Services to attached agencies overseas
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Contents > Overviews > Outcome 1: National Interests > Outcome 2: Consular & Passports > Outcome 3: Public Diplomacy > Management > Financial Statements > Appendixes > Glossaries
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