As part of the agency restructure implemented by the Government in October 1997, a Justice Portfolio was created to coordinate the provision of justice services to the community and the Government of South Australia.
At the same time, the Department of Justice was established as an administrative unit pursuant to the Public Sector Management Act 1995.
The Chief Executive is the only appointee to the Department of Justice. The Department was up to 30 June 1999 assigned no functions and this still remains the same at 30 June 2000 with the exception of the following.
In the 1999-2000 Budget, appropriation arrangements for a number of agencies within the Justice Portfolio were changed. In prior years appropriations were paid directly to the Attorney-General’s Department, Courts Administration Authority, Department for Correctional Services, Police Department and State Electoral Office. From 1 July 1999, appropriations for these agencies were provided to the Department of Justice.
The Treasurer approved in June 1999 the establishment of a Special Deposit Account for the Department of Justice to:
… record all activities of the Department and various activities within the Justice Portfolio including the transfer of funds to other agencies within the Portfolio, operating and investing expenditures, revenue from various activities and injections of funds provided from the Consolidated Account including from borrowings.
The Department does not control revenue and expenses in relation to this arrangement but is simply responsible for coordinating the funding process for the abovementioned agencies.
Given that the Department does not have a staffing structure, the activities of this Special Deposit Account are administered by the Attorney-General’s Department. For further details, refer to Attorney-General’s Department Financial Statements - Schedule of Administered Expenses and Revenues for the year ended 30 June 2000.
Since the creation of the Justice Portfolio, each of the agencies in the portfolio have continued to operate as separate administrative units and no changes have been made to the Chief Executives of any of the agencies. Consequently, the agencies have prepared separate financial statements for financial reporting purposes.
The following shows the organisational structure of the Justice Portfolio.
Notes:
(1)
Separate statutory authority independent of Executive Government
(2)
The Office of Solicitor-General (the second Law Office of the Crown) is constituted
under the Solicitor-General Act 1972
(3)
The Electoral Commissioner and Deputy Electoral Commissioner are directly appointed
by Parliament pursuant to the Electoral
Act 1985
(4)
Administrative Unit under the Public Sector
Management Act 1995
(5)
Statutory Authority
(6)
Incorporated Association
(7)
Public Corporation
(8)
Public Trading Entity
Cabinet approved on 26 October 1998 the establishment of the Emergency Services Administrative Unit (ESAU). The unit has brought together from 1 July 1999, administrative personnel from the South Australian Metropolitan Fire Service (SAMFS), Country Fire Service (CFS) and State Emergency Service SA (SES). The unit is responsible for providing all corporate and support services for emergency services and enabled joint strategic and business planning across the emergency services.
The Chief Executive of the unit is responsible for the management and administration of the unit, while the Country Fire Service Board and existing heads of the CFS, SAMFS and SES (a division of ESAU effective from 1 July 1999) will retain and continue to exercise their operational and statutory powers, as required.
As mentioned above the:
Chief Executive is the only appointee to the Department of Justice. The Chief Executive is also the Chief Executive of the Attorney-General’s Department. That Department discloses related remuneration payments;
activities of the Department’s Special Deposit Account are disclosed in the Attorney-General’s Department Financial Statements under administered transactions.
As a consequence no financial statements in respect to the Department of Justice have been prepared.