PGPA Newsletter 56

Finance has circulated the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Amendment (2019 Measures No. 4) Rules 2019 (the Amending Rule) to all Commonwealth entities and companies for consultation. Finance invites all Commonwealth entities and companies to provide comments by 22 October 2019. Please contact your CFO if you would like to provide comments on the Amending Rule.

The Amending Rule implements a number of recommendations from the Independent Review into the Operation of the PGPA Act and Rule.

The Amending Rule:

• allows an accountable authority or former accountable authority of a corporate Commonwealth entity to inspect the books of the entity for the purpose of an eligible legal proceeding;
• prescribes requirements for the preparation of corporate plans for Commonwealth entities under the PGPA Act;
• prescribes requirements that the performance measures of Commonwealth entities must meet for the purposes of the preparation of corporate plans;
• prescribes all audit committee members of a non‑corporate Commonwealth entity must not be officials of any Commonwealth entity; and for a corporate Commonwealth entity, all audit committee members must not be employees of the entity;
• requires the disclosure in Commonwealth entities’ annual reports of the audit committee charter, membership, qualifications, skills, knowledge or experience of each committee member, the details of each members attendance at meetings and the remuneration of each audit committee member;
• prescribes requirements about the granting of indemnities and exemptions in certain circumstances by corporate Commonwealth entities; and
• requires the disclosure in non-corporate Commonwealth entities’ annual reports of:
  • the number of and expenditure on new covered procurement contracts;
  • the number of and expenditure on ongoing covered procurement contracts; and
  • the names of the consultants and contractors that receive the largest shares of the entity’s expenditure on those consultancy and covered procurement contracts.

To assist you in providing comments, you may wish to review your entities’ previous submissions to the Review recommendations which are implemented by the Amending Rule, found here on the Independent Review website.

These sessions will include an update on the implementation of the recommendations of the Independent Review into the Operation of the PGPA Act 2013 and Rule, with a focus on the recommendations that relate to improving performance reporting.

These sessions will also cover the outcomes of the health assessment of the Commonwealth Performance Framework in response to recommendation 4 from the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit Report 469.

Details of the sessions are provided in the table below. Click on the relevant hyperlink to register or find out more about the sessions:

A reminder that the Performance Community of Practice sessions are intended for Commonwealth attendees only. Feel free to forward this invitation on to others that are involved in performance reporting in your entity. An agenda will be distributed to registered attendees prior to the sessions.

If you have any questions or no longer require to be on the Performance Community of Practice mailing list, please don’t hesitate to contact us at PMRA@finance.gov.au.

On 6 November 2019 Award winners from this year’s Awards for Excellence in Risk Management will be announced.

These awards recognise excellence in risk management across Australian Government entities. Join us to meet this year’s winners – Awards will be made in the following categories:

• Enterprise wide risk management: Demonstrate excellence in implementing risk management frameworks, practices and processes across the entity. Winners demonstrate how the nine elements of the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy underpin their risk management framework and contribute to the strategic planning, management and decision making processes within their entity.
• Risk initiative: Winners demonstrate excellence in risk management relating to a specific program or project. The winners clearly demonstrate how their program or project resulted in enhanced outcomes or innovation that align with the nine elements of the Commonwealth Risk Management Policy.

If you are interested in attending or wish to know more about the award winners contact Comcover@comcover.com.au

Case Study: Office of the General Counsel – Department of Communications and the Arts,

Using Risk Management to improve decision making.

Case Study: The Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, Developing Tailored Business Continuity Management Systems

Diary Date: Commonwealth Risk Managers Forum

Monday 11 November. 2.00-4.00pm

Department of Agriculture

To register risk.management@agriculture.gov.au