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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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CORPORATE MANAGEMENT & ACCOUNTABILITY
Overview
The passage of the Public Service Act 1999 changed the legislative framework under which the department operates and provided us with additional flexibility in managing our resources, including the most important of those resources, our people.
We updated our corporate policy framework with the launch of a new corporate plan. The Corporate Plan 2000–2002, which reflects the values enshrined in the Public Service Act, is intended to provide direction to staff on the implementation of the Government’s foreign and trade policies and describe to the broader Australian community the department’s work in advancing Australia’s interests.
Further developing the corporate policy framework, we launched a strategic people management plan and a training and development strategy. Both of these strategies are aimed at helping the department recruit the highest quality staff and train and deploy them appropriately. The Secretary also developed further a ‘working smarter’ campaign to improve the efficiency of staff working practices and to encourage staff to strike an appropriate balance between work and private life.
A new certified agreement, covering a three-year period from 1 July 2000, was negotiated and adopted by staff during the year. The agreement deals with key issues of remuneration, performance management, structure of staffing ‘broadbands’ and overseas conditions of service, and retains the fundamental link between performance and remuneration.
The budgetary framework for the department was strengthened by the adoption of accrual accounting and budgeting systems, the implementation of resource reallocation decisions made towards the end of the previous year, and the strategic management of physical assets. We developed practices that enabled us to meet our accountability obligations in new and improved ways, including by introducing better controls through centralised staffing structures and improved evaluation and audit processes. With the introduction of new electronic management information systems during the year we were able to continue to exploit the potential of information technology to achieve greater transparency of operations and improve information used in resource decision-making. We also prepared for the implementation of the new taxation system.
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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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