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Published

Members' Additional Entitlements 2017

Premier and Cabinet
Compliance
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration
Regulation
Service delivery

In a report released today, the Auditor-General for New South Wales, Margaret Crawford, identified two instances where Members of Parliament did not materially comply with the Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal’s Determination relating to additional entitlements. The Department of Parliamentary Services has subsequently requested that the two Members concerned repay amounts that were incorrectly claimed. One claim was made under the Electorate to Sydney Travel allowance and the other from the Communication allowance.

Appendix one - Response from Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal

Appendix two - Response from Department of Parliamentary Services

Published

Procurement and reporting of consultancy services

Finance
Education
Community Services
Industry
Justice
Planning
Premier and Cabinet
Health
Treasury
Transport
Environment
Information technology

Agencies need to improve their compliance with requirements governing the procurement of consultancy services. These requirements help agencies access procurement savings. Also, some agencies have under-reported consultancy fees in their annual reports for the 2016-17 financial year, according to a report released today by the Auditor-General for New South Wales, Margaret Crawford. The report examined twelve agencies' compliance with procurement and reporting obligations for consultancy services. It notes that it is difficult to quantify total government expenditure on consultants as agencies define ‘consultants’ differently.

NSW Government agencies engage consultants to provide professional advice to inform their decision‑making. The spend on consultants is measured and reported in different ways for different purposes and the absence of a consistently applied definition makes quantification difficult.

The NSW Government’s procurement principles aim to help agencies obtain value for money and be fair, ethical and transparent in their procurement activities. All NSW Government agencies, with the exception of State Owned Corporations, must comply with the NSW Procurement Board’s Direction when engaging suppliers of business advisory services. Business advisory services include consultancy services. NSW Government agencies must disclose certain information about their use of consultants in their annual reports. The table below illustrates the detailed procurement and reporting requirements.

  Relevant guidance Requirements
Procurement of consultancy services PBD 2015 04 Engagement of major suppliers of consultancy and other services (the Direction) including the Standard Commercial Framework
(revised on 31 January 2018, shortly before it was superseded by 'PBD 2018 01')
 		 Required agencies to seek the Agency Head or Chief Financial Officer's approval for engagements over $50,000 and report the engagements in the Major Suppliers' Portal (the Portal). 
  PBD 2018 01 Engagement of professional services suppliers
(replaced 'PBD 2015 04' in May 2018)		 Requires agencies to seek the Agency Head or Chief Financial Officer's approval for engagements that depart from the Standard Commercial Framework and report the engagements in the Portal. Exhibit 3 in the report includes the key requirements of these three Directions.
 
Reporting of consultancy expenditure Annual Reports (Departments) Regulation 2015 and Annual Reports (Statutory Bodies) Regulation 2015 Requires agencies to disclose, in their annual reports, details of consultants engaged in a reporting year.
  Premier's Memorandum 
'M2002 07 Engagement and Use of Consultants'
 		 Outlines additional reporting requirements for agencies to describe the nature and purpose of consultancies in their annual reports.

We examined how 12 agencies complied with their procurement and reporting obligations for consultancy services between 1 July 2016 and 31 March 2018. Participating agencies are listed in Appendix two. We also examined how NSW Procurement supports the functions of the NSW Procurement Board within the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation.

This audit assessed:

  • agency compliance with relevant procurement requirements for their use of consultants
  • agency compliance with disclosure requirements about consultancy expenditure in their annual reports 
  • the effectiveness of the NSW Procurement Board (the Board) in fulfilling its functions to oversee and support agency procurement of consultancy services. 
Conclusion
No participating agency materially complied with procurement requirements when engaging consultancy services. Eight participating agencies under reported consultant fees in their annual reports. The NSW Procurement Board is not fully effective in overseeing and supporting agencies' procurement of consultancy services.
All 12 agencies that we examined did not materially comply with the NSW Procurement Board Direction for the use of consultants between 1 July 2016 and 31 March 2018. 
Eight agencies did not comply with annual reporting requirements in the 2016–17 financial reporting year. Three agencies did not report expenditure on consultants that had been capitalised as part of asset costs, and one agency did not disclose consultancy fees incurred by its subsidiaries. Agencies also defined ‘consultants’ inconsistently.
The NSW Procurement Board's Direction was revised in January 2018, and mandates the use of the Standard Commercial Framework. The Direction aims to drive value for money, reduce administrative costs and simplify the procurement process. In practice, agencies found the Framework challenging to use. To better achieve the Direction’s intent, the Board needs to simplify procurement and compliance processes. 
The Board is yet to publish any statistics or analysis of agencies’ procurement of business advisory services due to issues with the quality of data and systems limitations. Also, the Board’s oversight of agency and supplier compliance with the Framework is limited as it relies on self reporting, and the information provided is insufficient to properly monitor compliance. NSW Procurement is yet to develop an effective procurement and business intelligence system for use by government agencies. Better procurement support, benefit realisation monitoring and reporting by NSW Procurement will help promote value for money in the engagement of consultants.

Appendix one - Response from agencies

Appendix two - List of selected agencies

Appendix three - Performance auditing

Published

Assessment of the use of a training program

Finance
Internal controls and governance
Management and administration

The Department of Finance, Services and Innovation (DFSI) and Service NSW's use of Franklin Covey's '7 Habits' program (the Program) met identified business needs according to a report released today by the Auditor-General for New South Wales Margaret Crawford. 

This audit assesses the effectiveness and economy of the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation's, including Service NSW's, use of the Franklin Covey ‘7 Habits’ program (the Program). On 15 March 2018, the Hon. Victor Dominello MP, Minister for Finance, Services and Property, requested the Auditor General conduct this audit under section 27(B)(3)(c) of the Public Finance and Audit Act 1983 (the Act).

About the agencies

The Department of Finance, Services and Innovation (the Department) is the lead agency of the Finance, Services and Innovation cluster. The Department has a number of divisions and business units, including: ICT and Digital Government, Property and Advisory Group, Better Regulation, NSW Fair Trading, Government and Corporate Services, and Revenue NSW. At 30 June 2017, the Department (excluding Service NSW) had 5,239 full-time equivalent staff.

Service NSW is a central point of contact for customers accessing NSW Government Services. It is a Division of the Finance, Services and Innovation cluster and operates as an executive agency. As an executive agency, Service NSW is led by a Chief Executive Officer, who is responsible to the Minister for Finance, Services and Property but appointed by the Secretary of the Department of Finance, Services and Innovation. Service NSW was established in 2013 and has operated under the Finance, Services and Innovation cluster since July 2015. At 30 June 2017, Service NSW had 1,989 full-time equivalent staff.

About the Program

The Program that the Department and Service NSW are implementing, and which is the subject of this audit, is a professional development training course which focusses on organisational culture emphasising personal effectiveness, leadership development and change management. All staff in the Department and Service NSW will receive the training, which involves:

  • a 360-degree assessment where every staff member receives feedback from their manager, direct reports, and peers
  • a two-day training workshop, which will be delivered face to face by accredited facilitators
  • 2 years of online access to all training materials created by the provider of the Program.

As part of the licensing arrangement purchased by the agencies, the Program also provides access (at no extra cost) to the full range of the provider's training and development courses that might be useful for other learning and development activities. This includes courses to improve staff capability in communication skills, leadership, productivity and customer engagement. The Department is considering using one of these courses to develop leadership capabilities. Service NSW has integrated three of these courses into its people development curriculum.

Service NSW commenced the first sessions of the Program in May 2017. At 24 April 2018, around 1,000 staff had undertaken the training. Service NSW expects all staff to complete the Program by June 2019.

The Department of Finance, Services and Innovation commenced the first sessions of the Program in August 2017. At 18 April 2018, around 175 staff had undertaken the training. The Department expects all staff to complete the Program by December 2019.

Audit objective and criteria

The audit sought to assess the effectiveness and economy of the Finance, Services and Innovation cluster’s use of the Program. In making this assessment, we considered whether:

  1.  the Program is being used effectively, including whether
    1. there is an identified need for the Program
    2. the use of the Program meets the identified need
    3. Finance, Services and Innovation cluster agencies evaluate the effectiveness of the Program
  2. the Program is economical, including whether:
    1. the procurement complies with all relevant policies and processes
    2. funding and resources allocated to the Program are reasonable.
Conclusion
The Department of Finance, Services and Innovation, and Service NSW developed workforce strategies which identified a business need to improve organisational culture and staff engagement. The Program met the identified business needs and both agencies negotiated value for money contracts for the delivery of the Program when compared to other available options for training all staff.
However, the agencies did not document evidence to show that training all staff members was necessary to meet their business needs, as compared with training fewer staff members at a lower overall cost. As a result, we are unable to form a view on whether the approach to train all staff members was economical. The agency heads have subsequently provided information supporting their decisions to train all staff members. This information indicates their decisions were based on evidence that this would meet the goals of their workforce strategies, including improving employee engagement scores and organisational culture change.
The Department is paying $1,320,700, over three years, for up to 5,600 staff to participate in the Program ($235.84 per person). Service NSW is paying $595,000, over two years, for up to 2,400 staff to participate in the Program ($247.92 per person).
The agencies are collecting the data they need to evaluate the Program and there is some evidence that the Program is achieving its objectives in Service NSW. Due to the timing of this audit, there is not yet enough information available to comment on whether the Program is achieving its objectives in the Department.

Sector-wide learnings

Implementing robust learning and development frameworks

  1. Agencies should evidence decisions about how proposed learning and development opportunities will meet staff and business needs - both in the program design, and through evaluation. In many cases, organisations may have unique needs or circumstances, or may want to trial innovative approaches to improving organisational capability. Innovation should be encouraged, to avoid the risk that agencies are locked into outdated training and development models. However such approaches should be balanced by ensuring that business needs are well scoped and defined.
     
  2. Agencies implementing innovative or new approaches to learning and development should build-in iterative evaluations (such as pulse surveys, or collecting post-participation qualitative feedback) to ensure that the training is delivered on intended benefits, and to inform improvements to ongoing rollout.
     
  3. Agencies implementing innovative or new training programs should ensure they build enough flexibility into contracts so that they can assess how well programs are meeting staff and business needs, and use evidence to inform whether further rollout should occur.

Appendix one – Response from agencies

Appendix two – Evaluation methodologies

Appendix three – About the audit

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