Reports
Actions for Transport of Dangerous Goods
Transport of Dangerous Goods
Dangerous goods make up 10-15% of domestic freight and have potential to harm people, property and the environment. They include substances such as explosives, flammable liquids and gases, and oxidising agents. However, Government inspection programs were limited. The Office of Environment and Heritage carried out very few checks in the four years up to 2010, with no inspections made in the metropolitan area. This is despite Port Botany handling around 50,000 containers of dangerous goods per year. Statewide, only 303 inspections were made in 2009/10 and only 20 in 2008/09.
Parliamentary reference - Report number #212 - released 10 May 2011
Actions for Shared Corporate Services: Realising the Benefits
Shared Corporate Services: Realising the Benefits
Under appropriate conditions, shared service arrangements are a proven method for obtaining significant cost savings from productivity improvements and economies of scale. Benefits realised in NSW from shared services are significantly below what was expected. At June 2003 general government agencies had achieved savings of $13.6 million, or 5 per cent, of projected accumulated savings of $297 million to be achieved by 2006. Implementation costs are estimated to be $79.4 million. Most agencies had yet to fully implement the Government’s shared services strategy supporting productivity and salary increases.
Parliamentary reference - Report number #128 - released 3 November 2004
Actions for Managing Grants
Managing Grants
In our view, the agencies we studied cannot be sure that the grants they allocate align with their corporate objectives, and that program outcomes are achieved. This is mainly due to problems with grant selection and the evaluation of results. It was good to see that most of the grants programs had funding objectives which were fairly clear. But we found problems across most programs which could affect the fair and equitable selection of grants, such as, often no procedures for assessing applications, no assessment guidelines for advisory committees, often no clear rationale for assessments and poor documentation of the reasons for decisions.
Parliamentary reference - Report number #104 - released 4 December 2002
Actions for User-Friendliness of Websites
User-Friendliness of Websites
Of the sites examined, users would find that some offered a pleasant and productive experience. Using others would be onerous and frustrating. Some users would not be able in practice to access features on some sites. All sites, even the best, had aspects warranting better attention to users’ needs. The failure of some sites to provide important information about privacy, security and legal matters was of particular concern. For the sites evaluated there was little use of the web to foster two-way communication between the public and agencies on issues of concern or as part of the policy process. And it seems that consultation with users on site design is not always sufficiently undertaken. A website is more likely to be user-friendly if design is based on thorough consultation with users.
Parliamentary reference - Report number #99 - released 26 June 2002