Government Administration Reform: Introductory Comments

GOVERNMENT ADMINISTRATION REFORM: INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS

INTRODUCTION

The 1997-98 year was marked by the implementation of major changes in the administrative arrangements of the Government of this State.

The change process which followed the election and appointment of the new government in October 1997 related, in the main, to the restructure of Ministerial and public sector agency responsibilities and arrangements.

OVERVIEW AND AIMS OF IMPLEMENTED CHANGES

In October 1997, the Government established ten Ministerial portfolios. These portfolios linked common areas of policy and services and formed larger and multifaceted portfolio based government agencies. In essence, each Ministerial portfolio comprised the portfolio Minister and the newly formed portfolio based department and other agencies (statutory authorities or other).

In relation to the newly formed portfolio based government departments, 8 such departments were created on 23 October 1998 concurrent with the abolition on that date of 25 government agencies. The central agencies of Premier and Cabinet and Treasury and Finance continued with limited change. The functions and activities of the abolished agencies were transferred to these 2 central agencies and the 8 newly created agencies.

In addition to the 10 portfolio Ministers (Cabinet Ministers), 5 further Ministers (Delegate Ministers) were appointed in December 1997. The role and responsibility of the Delegate Ministers is to assist certain of the portfolio Ministers with specific areas of their portfolio responsibility.

The aim of the changed government administrative arrangements is as follows:

to create a more manageable size of government for South Australia and at the same time providing for appropriate assistance to senior Ministers and senior Chief Executives in the larger portfolio grouping;
to establish agencies with coherent and congruent policy agendas;
to create an environment which fosters better quality advice to government and which creates more options for how services will be provided;
to better identify areas of duplication or low value activity.

AUDIT REVIEW

The nature and extent of the changes to Ministerial and public sector agency portfolio arrangements gave rise to certain important matters of accountability and control that required review in the discharge of the statutory audit responsibilities. These matters related to the following areas:

audit of the accounts of the abolished agencies and the transfer of staff, assets and liabilities to the newly formed portfolio based departments or other agencies;
review of the accountability relationships and arrangements applying as a result of the new Ministerial and public sector agency portfolios ensuring governance of the separate portfolio agencies was consistent with their respective statutory requirements.

Regarding the second matter, this considered whether the role, responsibility and authority relationships, between the portfolio Ministers and Delegate Ministers, and the portfolio based Department Chief Executive and the Boards and Chief Executives of Statutory Authorities within the portfolio were clearly established and accountable.

The following three chapters of this Part of my Report present observations and comments arising from the review of the aforementioned areas. In brief the chapters relate to:

Government Administration Reform: Abolished Agencies - Financial Reporting and Audit.

Government Administration Reform: Ministers and Delegate Ministers - Role, Responsibility and Authority Relationships.

Government Administration Reform: Public Sector Agency Restructuring - Human Services Portfolio - Accountability and Legal Issues of Importance.

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