This performance audit indicates that the Service has considerable work to do to reach its aspirations of being recognised amongst leading examples of best practice services. The commitment of the Service to serving the community and the professionalism of the Service's officers is not in question. It is, however, apparent that a number of barriers to performance will need to be overcome for the Service to perform as well as it would wish.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #80 - released 7 March 2001

Realisation of the Government’s objectives for integrating computers into the school environment is a major change that will take some time to achieve. The logistics of equipping schools with computers and making them operational have been approached energetically by the Department. Four years into the Computers in Schools Program, student and teacher access to computer hardware, software and the Internet is now substantially greater and teachers are now better placed to integrate computers into teaching and learning. But while much has been achieved there are significant challenges that still remain.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #73 - released 7 June 2000

There have been notable changes in the provision of emergency department services over the last decade, principally by increasing the number, seniority and training of staff and upgrading facilities. More recently, programs have focussed on achieving improvements in emergency department waiting times (the time taken to see a doctor) and access block (delay in accessing a hospital bed). However, these programs have had limited effect. Although waiting times for seriously ill patients have decreased, waiting times for around 95% of emergency department patients have increased or remain unchanged and performance against benchmarks for access block has declined each year.

Although The Audit Office identified opportunities to improve patient flow in the emergency department, benefits will be limited by access block and the congestion caused by being unable to move patients to a ward. Only a better balance of resources between inpatient access programs (that is booked and emergency department patients) will bring about improvements in access block.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #72 - released 15 March 2000

The Audit Office is of the opinion that, whilst all universities have developed policies to manage POW and to protect IP rights, many of those polices are outdated and require urgent review. Many of them do not adequately protect the universities or provide adequate compensation for the use of their resources or their name. There also seems to be a lack of clarity for accountability to monitor and enforce the policy. Whilst greater attention seems to have been given to protect the intellectual property rights, which mainly arise as a consequence of research projects, there is a need to review and revisit those policies as well.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #71 - released 7 February 2000

The Police Service is in the process of undertaking a wide range of information technology and systems developments that are expected to improve the Service’s capabilities to apply intelligence information to the deployment of staff at Local Area Commands (LACs). Implementation of the current phase is to take place over the next eighteen months. The Audit Office considers that the developments are timely and when fully implemented should significantly contribute to the Police Service’s ability to be more proactive and provide for better staff deployment.

The Audit Office is of the view that the impact of these developments on the efficiency and effectiveness of rostering and tasking at LACs would be further enhanced by attention to gaps in systems and to restrictive staff allocation practices.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #70 - released 31 January 2000

The Audit Office is of the opinion that there are several features of the current Senior Executive Service (SES) model, or its application, which hinder the capacity of the SES to operate effectively in line with the Government’s stated objectives. The ultimate effect of these features is to reduce the capacity or perceived capacity of the SES to meet the Government’s objectives for the operation of the SES.

Taken overall, difficulties in the SES identified by the audit included: uncertainty caused by the way some contracts have been applied in practice, removal for reasons other than poor performance, informal strategies such as using restructuring to “terminate contracts and to move people in and out of positions regardless of their formal reported performance” (Section 5.4), inconsistently applied rules about selection/recruitment, appointment and removal of the SES, an imbalance between CES responsibility to the Minister as the employer/reviewer with their responsibility not to act in a political or partial manner, apparent lack of rigour in, value of and Ministerial accountability for CES performance review processes and failure to implement an adequate system of rewards and sanctions related to performance.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #59.1 - released 17 December 1998

This Performance Audit Report, prepared by the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) on behalf of The Audit Office of New South Wales (NSW), is a study of the NSW Senior Executive Service (SES).

It found the dissonance between where optimal executive performance might take place on a performance spectrum, encompassing the formal SES and less formal political arenas, is canvassed. The critical point here is that this arena, between the informal political actions and the application of formal SES structures, where much of the important decision making takes place, will always be difficult to manage. Transparency in decision making processes where non partisan and partisan actions are clearly defined seems a primary essential element of performance if the integrity of the NSW SES is to be maintained.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #59.2 - released 17 December 1998

The NSW model of rural fire fighting is complex, and requires an extensive amount of coordination and cooperation to function properly. This has inherent risks. In general, the model has been made to work quite well and much improvement in rural fire fighting has been achieved over the past decade. The efforts of all concerned should be recognised and applauded especially since any change must be developed cooperatively between a number of agencies and groups.

Nevertheless, past tensions and difficulties have left pockets of disagreement and resistance. The rural fire fighting culture which was developed over the course of a century has always been highly dedicated, as it is today. However, changed organisational, technical, legal, financial and environmental factors have necessitated major and continuing changes.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #57 - released 2 December 1998

This audit was initiated following concerns expressed by the Department of Agriculture about the Police’s handling of a suspected fraud that it had first reported in 1996. The Department’s main concern related to the long delays before a full Police investigation took place.

Nevertheless, the current review highlighted a number of areas that, in the opinion of The Audit Office, require closer examination and resolution by the Police Service in implementing their changes. This report highlights those areas and provides recommendations for the Police to consider in its implementation of its reforms. Key areas requiring attention include: service standards are not clearly defined for the police response to fraud, without which it is difficult to ensure that police objectives and public expectations are met; restrictive employment arrangements which limit management’s ability to obtain the appropriate mix of people with skills to investigate fraud and inadequate information systems to support operational, tactical and strategic decision-making.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #53 - released 14 October 1998

Information relating to the NSW public sector wide sickness absence levels, unlike in some other states, are presently not maintained or monitored centrally. The salaries and wages paid to individuals whilst on sickness absence on a public sector wide basis in 1996-97 was estimated to be $368.3m. This estimate does not take into account any flow -on effect resulting from sickness absence, eg overtime or other replacement cost.

Improved management of sickness absence provides an opportunity for the NSW public sector to gain benefits, including the reduction of salary costs associated with people on sickness absence. The salary differential between the sickness absence level currently existing and the sickness absence level reported for the private sector, is around $123m per annum. To assist with the management of sickness absence within the NSW public sector, The Audit Office of NSW developed a Better Practice Guide. This Guide has been referred to the Premier’s Department for consultation as a prelude to its completion and release.

Parliamentary reference - Report number #52 - released 27 August 1998